Something Wonderful [first Published: Urbania 2010] Poem by Steve Downes

Amid the madness of eyes on stalks
wagging tongues drying out in the bluster of their
own chatter
hip-shake walks of boys stepping out as girls
and girls tough as boys
a tattoo parlour of colour needles the scene against
a Soho coffee shop backdrop
the good
and the bad
and those of us who are both
perhaps all of us are paradoxes

we move as birds flock
to and from the drudgeries and pleasures
one to the other
back and forth
anticipating or dreading the alternations
Here
they tell me
the coffee is good
but irrelevant to the location
certainly irrelevant to me
Something Wonderful has come
come to pass
or come to realisation
perhaps the sipper doesn't know the difference
and couldn't really care
Something Good
Sweat
is an addiction
not administered but absorbed through the senses
as magnificent as the microcosms of creatures passing by
too long can be spent here and roots may grow down
finish the cup and leave
A little brown circle on the heavy china saucer
beside it a little too much change
and a flyer
for some destination of moral question
to the arms of Something Wonderful
forget the oscillations of the flock
for a few smitten moments