DIVERSIONS – THE MORNING AFTER
(First published in “Winged Words” January 1974; composed several years earlier)The first of many, reaching back
down Amber One to the Watford “Stack”,
yesterday evening at eighteen-hundred
a seven-oh-seven duly thundered
over the threshold – whoosh-smack-BOOM!
to taxi-in through the winter gloom.
And Manchester Airport, at seven o’clock
all tills ringing, was choc-a-bloc
with aircraft, agents, passengers, crews
- a gentleman from the “Evening News”
and – full of bouncy anticipation
Wythenshawe’s juvenile-population …
In the wee small hours the departing fleets
grumbled out over quiet streets
Heald Green, Cheadle and Gatley fretfully
Turned in their sleep, dreaming – regretfully –
Of Rate Reductions …
“Diversion Bonanza for Airport” – Nothing new
in the Northern editions. A line or two
as morning broke, frosty calm and cold
on acres and acres of concrete, rolled
desert-deserted around the Piers.
… we’d not had a Party like that in years and years
… Not like that!
- Morning mist, like an errant smile
round Manchester Airport lingers awhile
… like the smile
on the Cheshire Cat!
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