Poem: Tea
From Planet 223
by Damian Walford Davies
A disquieting fin-de-siècle ghost story in verse, Docklands explores grey worlds at the edges of the eye, dramatically conjuring late-Victorian Cardiff’s hustling, booming, sullied docks – and the horrors they conceal. It is a study of the violences perpetrated against wives and daughters, and of patterns of grief and longing. ‘Tea’ is one of the poems in this forthcoming collection.
Mr Enos Royston, Francophile,
scuttles out to Duke Street’s
boulevard, linen apron double-tied,
to rearrange his wicker chairs
and café tables. He’s a huckster
like the others, but he touts
