Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Birmingham (Part 1)

Feel like I’ve landed
On another planet
Called Birmingham

When Lucas was suffering his lapse
In Star Wars Episode 2
Attack of the Defunct Imagination
Maybe his designers
Honed their skills
On Birmingham

As I wander around
I am trapped in a huge
Steel and concrete executive toy
Picking my way
Through the rubble and stubble
The building site moves in slow motion
Through the city and back
As it did thirty years ago
When I was half past boy
The building site’s a wandering sore
A crazy man-created monster plant
Cloned from the carcass of its past
Scattering its of vines and tines
Its seeds and spears
Willy-nilly across the park
The hard and dark
Bewitching and bemusing the inhabitants
Of Birmingham

2 comments:

Wastedpapiers said...

I think you are being very unfair to poor old Brum. It has made great strides in recent years to change its image to bring it up to the standard of a Milton Keynes.

Roger Stevens said...

Au contraire. I like Birmingham very much. I was at college there for a year you know. But they have knocked it about a bit. More of that poem to come.