Crammed up against
the end of the carriage
on the Hammersmith & City,
as we head underground

I hear an amateur
magician passionately
telling the woman he’s with
the tricks he’s going to do

and as he does, I turn
into The Great Jady
again, with my dark velvet
black-against-black tube

beneath Madame Tussaud’s
beyond The Vanishing Arch
towards King’s Cross –
in my rucksack, the crowd

glancing at it nervously,
a Life of John Dee –
back through endless parties
and patter and misdirection.