For Paul and Maya

Between still life and low relief,
the squared off, plain, distempered walls
of Japanese size, I’m up before
there’s need and, tentatively, slide your bathroom door …

Here, in this machine for living
with its rectilinear forms and functions, its ocean-liner curves,
practically on tiptoe, I grasp a D-shaped handle
and pull in search of tea:

and I glance from a minimal kitchen window
to see, all of a sudden,
feathers discombobulating natural leaf-shapes
on Lawn Road.
Then,
where a Belsize Park dawn’s peace and silence
hasn’t yet woken its name-haunted street,
I make like a farewell to the modern
clicking your front-door shut.

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Peter Robinson’s recent publications are the novel, September in the Rain (2016) and Collected Poems 1976-2016. He is Professor of English and American Literature at the University of Reading and poetry editor for Two Rivers Press.