Listen to the world’s best poetry read out loud.

But it was the shadowed street-side she chose 

While Victor Gold the bookies based 

In conquered sunlight, and though 

Dair Road Licensed Grocer gloried and cast 

Fascinating shadows she chose 

The side dark in the shade of tenements: 

That corner where Universal Stores’ (closed 

For modernisation), blank hording blocked 

Her view as if that process were illegal: 

She chose to photograph her baby here, 

The corner with the pillar box. 

In his buggy, which she swung to her face. 

She took four steps back, but 

The baby in his buggy rolled toward the kerb. 

She crossed the ground in no time. 

It was fearful as Niagara, 

She ran to put the brake on, and returned 

to lift the camera, a cheap one. 

The tenements of Caledonian Place neither 

Watched nor looked away; they are friendly buildings. 

The traffic ground, the buildings shook, the baby breathed 

And maybe gurgled at his mother as 

Smiled to make him smile in his picture; 

Which she took on the kerb in the shadowed corner, 

Beside the post-box, under tenements, before the  

Bin bags hot in the sun that shone 

On them, on dogs, on people on the other side 

The other side of the street to that she’d chosen, 

If she’d chosen or thought it possible to choose.