1.
Something is taking over the bush
and the woods and the forests,
the walls of the cities, the markets,
the crèches and the prisons,
the hospitals and the homes of the towns.
Down by the railway embankment
in the spokes of rusty bicycles,
in the springs of lost mattresses,
among bins behind outhouses,
in the urine-smelling alleys,
in the churches and the old factories
and in the snow-white pebble gardens
of the new estates it prospers.
Life flourishes upon the red brick
and pale stone of manor walls,
it worms its way through the ruins
of poor houses and pigeon houses
and into the cracks
and chinks of life and the marketplace.