Denizens

Mice live in the London Tube.
A train leaves
and small pieces of sooty black
detach themselves
from the sooty black walls
and forage for crumbs
in the rubbish under the rails
that are death to man.
You can’t see their feet move.
They scurry like clockwork mice
and then they accelerate
faster than any clockwork mouse,
faster than the eye can follow.
Your eye jerks to keep up with them.
There are usually three.
You can tell when a commuter has spotted one;
he becomes alert, alive –
it makes you realize the half-world
the other passengers exist in.
Once, a mouse came onto the platform
and sat, cleaning his whiskers,
watched by a silent circle
of respectful giants,
tall as Nelson’s column.

Jean Cardy was a friend to IS&T and proof that it is never too late to keep writing and submitting poetry. She had three collections and many poems published. In her eighties she was teaching Creative Writing for U3A. She died on 20th January, a week before her 100th birthday – that telegram would not have impressed in any case.

We say goodbye to her today.

‘Denizens’ was selected by Helen Ivory, unaware of the connection between Jean and IS&T publisher Kate Birch. It was originally published on 16th June 2013.