Sydenham Woods

Sydenham Woods
wear wildness lightly
a shroud for brick bone
sunken gardens shattered
hothouse glass and iron
stanchions clinker paths
among the rhododendron
The memory of steam
is strong pulling punters
to the Palace on the hill
A long abandoned tunnel
exhales catacomb breath
in summer heat
But Nature’s never
far away The shriek of parakeets
distant scuffling dogs
The wail of sirens and the bay
of racing engines filter from below
And once like jostling peaches
a lady’s sunlit buttocks
pleasuring her lover
who lay there mouth agape
on fallen litter fallen leaves