Passage to London
Spring has come to swing
his hammer, to drive
crocuses forth
from the leaf-scattered soil.
Look at the workmen
raising their scaffolding,
opening roofs
where the old tiles lay.
While daisies peer shyly
towards a pale sun
I up and depart
on the camouflaged back
of a frog who tracks
a damp embankment,
the tangled road
to the gold-paved city.
Between the Gothic
spikes of Parliament,
over the Thames we fly,
beating cold air.
Beside the gleaming
tortured towers
cranes are pointing
vainly at heaven.
Our destiny lies
on the living streets,
though I leap from the frog’s back
to find my beloved
and he hops away
to damp places.
Still a flash of sun
bursts the long whale-cloud,
lighting the yellow
crowns of dandelion.
Now all animal
hearts are burning.
Dennis Tomlinson lives in London and has been published in many magazines etc. His poetry pamphlets are Sleepless Nights (Maverick Mustang, 2019), Over the Road (Dempsey & Windle, 2021), Ornaments (Paekakariki Press, 2022) and now The Alexandra (Maverick Mustang, 2025).