Old Brompton Road

1         "Death is but a sleep"         quaint rationalization         even to Revolutionaries.         Think of Robespierre         holding his bleeding jaw         or Marat outside -         eyeing the inscription,         scofula no longer distracting while         tepidly emptying bath water.         2         Dreams, poetry of painting,         deathly pastel shades alongside         granite canyons         entwined with rosebuds and leaves -         bone horseshoes clanking in the dark.         3         Catch basin, drainage ditch         upon which the raspberry         parts its tendrils and         human remains, the loathing         of the living ("not dead yet...."         ...appropriate obscenity:)         scrawled on one Victorian         mortuary, windows knocked out,         coffins in full view a         hand's reach away on a dare         dignitaries in a pile pried loose;         one, few years hence across         the Channel, sworn enemy         to the French.