A Removal from Terry Street

 

On a squeaking cart, they push the usual stuff,
A mattress, bed ends, cups, carpets, chairs,
Four paperback westerns. Two whistling youths
In surplus U S Army battle-jackets
Remove their sister’s goods. Her husband
Follows, carrying on his shoulders the son
Whose mischief we are glad to see removed,
And pushing, of all things, a lawnmower.
There is no grass in Terry Street. The worms
Come up cracks in concrete yards in moonlight.
That man, I wish him well. I wish him grass.

First published in Terry Street (Faber, 1969), from New Selected Poems 1964-2000 (Faber, 2003) © Douglas Dunn 2003, used by permission of the author c/o United Agents.

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