The circular ticket hall
of Piccadilly Circus
London Underground
sees in the evening
the contraflow of
two disparate populations
theatre-goers flow down
to the tube line lines below
digging deep to drop coins
in the pint-size paper cups
of the beggars at their feet
or not…
the tide of supplicants
washes in to catch
the beneficent potential
of culture sated happiness
or not…
One group headed homeward
to cosy homes in the suburbs
the other homeless
unless you call a cardboard
mattress in a shop doorway home
and if these homeless are also addicts
then what is an addict if not someone
who also wants to be transported elsewhere
counting the fare to their next fix
perhaps they too want to go home
or perhaps to get as far away from home
as possible and anywhere but here and now
watching still purposeful feet pass by
this Ticket Hall is home to no one
a place of transit and temporary contraflows
Earlier in the day
commuters on the way to work
hurried past less generous
with the urgency
of earning a buck
and when their tide turns
at clocking off time
they flow against the stream
of theatre-goers
bubbling up from underground
and both streams
bypass the static beggars
arranged like rocks
around the confluential hall
That is the way it seemed to me
when years ago
I sometimes navigated the waters
when working in London
but maybe the government
has forced the Tube
to sweep away
the detrital evidence
of years of draining austerity
clashing with personal derailment
on the rocky journey through life
But places exist in time
as well as space
and I suspect these tidal flows
of rich and poor effaced
still meet for an exchange
of generosity and relief
somewhere out on
the streets of London
People, like water
will find a way to go
a time and place
to contraflow…
© Andrew Wilson, 2023
Posted for OLN #348 – Two Opportunities to join us LIVE @dVerse Poets Pub