Highgate
By Paul Cameron Brown
Angel Inn,
come off a sign
blown sideways
in the sugar and ices
night.
Old St. Joseph's
Cathedral, bottom
of the hill, here
Andrew Marvell
of "coy mistress"
fame sports a plaque
remembering "time's
winged chariot" and
farther (further!) up
a quaint pub gives accolades
(Kudos, too) to the fact, 1666
nefariously was the plague year
in London - Parliament Hill,
a brief arm stretch away,
posited strangled chickens
and other assorted heirlooms
in vain attempt for poesy
to thwart poxy.
A stone's throw
off in Hampstead Heath
guns (Big Berthas) could
be heard from the Somme,
German derigibles dropped
incendiaries, the wounded entrained
at Charing Cross and a rascallion
(John Keats by name) drained
a draught at Jack Straw's
Castle near the Spaniards
while Turpin's hanged corpse
was soon to resemble good
English oaker casks
at the Flask.