Variations on an urban monotone an urban monotone i lay these words before your mind like bricks yet tentative suggestive as the way a skein of geese is pointing is mutating in our autumn sky our springtime sky this place is just a building site: puddles are malingering the weeds repent cigarette butts fleck the clods of mud the scaffolds cordon off and then the bricks which crumble into bits within my upturned palm wet clay remains clod up my hand as my fingers web and dry to scattering sand windblown thoughts as white as hebridean you lay these bricks before my mind like words quite square quite boxed apartment blocked i’m teasing down the walls from inside out the syntax capitals full stops i breathe a pause that moment when we realise we’re touching 9