Thursday 3 February 2011

The Spree

Hunched over the rod an angler drew on a cigarette
and we gave three blasts of our horn
and growled backward into the river
to turn and point our nose at the Allianz Tower
the weeping willow soon brushed past
had lined the Spree but then to Janowitz Bridge
through derelict brick and colourful paint
to find there enveloped in clouds
of perfumed smoke
now and then dispersed by erratic breezes
the elderly man, the bus passenger from Sauerland
chain smoking furiously
using his brassy foldaway ashtray
removed from the depths of his raincoat pocket
as and when needed
the cruiser's decks were spotlessly clean
and the sloganed brick cried out for us to
PULL THE PLUG and
SAVE THE ICE FACTORY or
BOMB THE PLANET
before we entered West Berlin

_______
gw2011

4 comments:

  1. Very powerful Gwilym. When I read the title I thought we were going on a spree- I do love sprees!
    I have never been to Berlin but the imagery you portray here reminds me somewhat of The Third Man.

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  2. Liked the 'r' and 'l' sounds in the first half of the poem. And the slogans work well in the poem; so powerfully written in capitals to compare with the smoke hidden events.

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  3. Thanks Pat, Gordon and John, Yes, as you say Pat a bit like a version of the Third Man - some walls are left speckled with bullet holes, near Gorky Theatre for example. Evidence of something or other. I recently found some rough notes I'd made when I was there 5 years ago and so I extrapolated them into a poem. A funny thing was that my mobile phone would only work in West Berlin and then only near the airport. My hotel was in the East. Not far from Vogt's Bier Express and Berlin's more 'interesting' bars. It's also much cheaper.

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