Across the Leam from Mill Gardens

Across the Leam from Mill Gardens

 

The clock drips from the parish church.

As I cross the bridge

to Jephson Gardens

it is early February

and the pigeons remain unfed by council decree.

“Mind your head”

the entrance to the underpass reads

the only piece of graffiti left in this oh so heavenly place.

Mothers walk their babies

this as every morning in Royal Leamington Spa.

Operatives tend the grounds

to ill- afford the prices in this town so high.

“A Lady with dirty petticoats” alongside Edinburgh

once described, a fairytale town with Cinderella absent,

a beauty with a mole or two.

But, did Victoria with all her majesty foresee

that behind all the façades and the remnants of imperial glory

lingers young people robbing the well-heeled for the next hit?

Leamington, my home, that saved me a spiral downwards……

Now I rise ever mindful of the pitfalls, ever mindful of knowing my position

in the order of things.

John Yates 2014