'Prosperity': A poem by Cameron Holleran

Prosperity

A poem by Cameron Holleran, IGP Poet-in-Residence

Gawdy greengrocers on Roman Road sell me the ripest

fruit, standing indefatigable beside the latest riot

against poverty, an obscene daubing from the hands of Tories’

sons. Always sons. Summer sees Viccy Park owned by sporty

hordes, inhabitable to all who wear their sportswear without running through the rosy
blossoms. When it is cloudy, I can forget that property

in Canary Wharf shares a borough with barges, ex- and current council houses – each an eyesore

to the wrong person.

Sitting beside this, tipsy

Shoreditch stumbles in and out of relevancy, richer now. Poets,

like I, will always be poor but I am rich where the Pepsi

is cheap. My heart’s forever Poundland and the noble corner store.