Time’s house declaration.

As your gaze flicks through
the windows of drawing rooms
in Bayswater, or similar views,
you realise that the occupants
are so far removed from the
tribes behind the terraced streets
as to be almost a different species.

It’s not their fault, of course, or
anyone’s, it’s simply their careworn
brick that has been overestimated
for centuries – a formula’s conclusion –
presented from the front of the room
by people who could for those who
best understood.

But time has taken itself seriously
enough of late to re-evaluate these ends,
and modify them accordingly, and though
mediocrity has shown its loathsome face,
it has not entirely replaced the past,
and therefore hope is sustained that
common sense will still find room for all.