Everyone is coming home:
The Italian couple,
They must be in their seventies and
Are holding hands.
They came here years ago
They no longer dream of Sicily.
The young pale man, sixteen, greeted by his girlfriend who is very sweet,
But he cannot see that,
And she cannot see that he is not well enough to love her.
She will, though.
She grew up here but she will not stay like
The Italian couple,
The children coming home from school,
Their father who waits for them wearing his bright green
Jacket because he is still
Nervous, every day, that they might not
See him, that they may lose their way,
Like Hansel and Gretel
And never return.
They have come back today:
A hug,
He holds their hands as they walk home.
The Italian couple have gone to the market,
The teenagers have gone to the banks of the river,
Where he can be sad and she can mudlark
And sometimes look up at the sky.
She can hear the planes taking off from the Isle of Dogs
And feels a subtle fear when she thinks
I will not grow old here.