Stepney 99

Damp complaining,
Hate the climate
Hateful thoughts
That congregate around this
Butt end of the nation
That integrates its
New recruits
By getting them to read
Some filthy rag

Living still
Among the
Bangladeshis
One odd remnant
Of an earlier wave
90 years on
Stiff and pale
Like the corpse
She soon will be
Compos mentis
Son retired
One group among the others
Caring neither
What I think,
Or what we did.

The next flat on
Within the room
One sees upon the television
Dancing girls
An image that
Bestows a kind of fictive
Childish pleasure.
Perspiration
Alien power
Far more
Titillation and refusal.

Deeper meaning
Concrete promise and denial.