STANDING TALL

March by, clench fists
Reveal patriotism -
Heavy duty thoughts

Salute this chimney, busted
Door - A ghost of a warehouse
With leather-clad workers...

The whole ensemble stood
Proudly intact through
Two World Wars.

DEMOLITION v.2

Raised slowly in 1904
Given a date-stone, and a team
Of skilled men and labourers
It will all be over in a day.

The machine is round the back
Playing hide and seek, packing muscle
It's elongated limb and pincer extracting
Dirty wood from the second story -

The front is still open for business,
but it's being eaten up inside. Soon there
Is a shower of wood and slate and brick;
I'm in Normandy circa 1944 – I retreat

From a great cloud of dust as
Another piece of industry and commerce
Falls away - and I think about
Bradford Town, Time, Ecclesiastes.