Before l Go

by Mike Bell29 April 2021

I’d have to use Blackfriars Bridge – London – if asked to name it [I cannot recall when I last crossed by it] –

I swam benign widths [in my day] – slipping grassy banks in Surrey – My last view would be of a tower

with OXO emblazoned on it [as I drank gravy-brown water – best spat out – but not optional if drowning] –

I would have climbed up a parapet & jumped with my arms flung wide – crucified by that drop – not killed by

that shock of cold water on my body from muddy flows of crumbled cubes – sent to a cool morgue by drowning