As I said in my last piece, I’m working on a book/collection of tales, stories, anecdotes, poems, scraps of life in my adopted city of Hamburg. My working title is Hamburg in the Light of Bridges. There are 2,300 bridges in Hamburg so I thought it would be a good title to begin with. I wrote this poem the other day. I’m not sure of the title but this is it….

As Real As Life Gets      

 

In the city, there are coats on people and jackets on pegs

in shop windows. There is paint on walls in suburbs,

names above buildings and women on something

in Good Ville. The city seems safe, but as sure as

there was a time before cars, some judges go to lunch

in brothels, policemen walks up and down dreaming

of a cosy bar with a lady who has got a weapon

to trade. There’s a tormented professor of philosophy

in coffee shop and a breezy troublemaker next to her.

Hints of a real world fall into focus like the blue of a pool

from up high. An elderly lady leans across into her

neighbour’s garden to pinch a sprig with a straight face.

The visiting crowd leave facts and figures

on a beach in July. Wind blows up the river and waves

roll in with the tides. Symbols have meaning for some.

Colour blindness sees what it sees and not every singer

is happy. A boy and girl receding into the woods, or a

child on cloud nine with ice-cream is as real as life gets.