My favourite seat, beside the driver's cab,
was vacant, only this time at the back.
Objects a morning metro trip reveals -
the shiny rails, ruffled embankments, leaves
of tree and hedgerow, blood-red signal lights -
all flow away from me. In Hopi style,
its logic unassailable, I face
the vistas of the past; behind me, safe
against discovery, where the long track curls
towards a city's heart, the future lurks.

The Chain of Being

Attracted by the fidget and the chirp,
a cat is eyeing a blackbird on his perch
deep in an apple tree. Her lifting tail
electrically writhes and flicks. Elate
with atavistic ravening, she walks
...