Location! Location! Location! It’s a mantra

the upwardly mobile intone,

who have set up shop elsewhere –

catchpenny merchants with tricks up sleeves,

purveyors of pleasures and deals.

On a street where ripples of boom

and bust have long since subsided

beneath the tide of failure

the footfall of ‘three day millionaires’

kept all the rest in business.

Awaiting...

Read and leave comments (4)

for Paul

The Waldorf was always Grandad’s hotel –

the place he had helped to build but never

got to stay in. From his room in the Bronx,

did he hop on the El to leave his mark

on Manhattan’s skyline? It’s too late now

to check the details, as I try at least

to plot his absent years back from the splash

of its opening to the Wall Street Crash.

Working out h...

Read and leave comments (2)

Home again each month like a stranger,

he has three days’ turnaround

between trips for you to wash

his gear – which leaves you

barely two when, on his final day,

you’d rinse off his luck.

So let him mooch with mates,

while you heat the copper and soak

his long johns, socks and ganseys

in that soup of frothing water,

teasing fibres matted

with blood, scales, sp...

Read and leave comments (3)