The unhidden thread

Grey sunlight glances off wet tarmac, boats
and barges surf and plough the wind and tide.

Planes fly above the cloud; from suburb, coast
and weald, the trains and buses flow in lines,

converge, and spill their riders who divide
and follow bridges, belts and stairways spread

about the city, movements synchronised –
all held in balance by a hidden thread.

I shiver from the beauty of this web,
and cower to foresense its fragile silk cut through –

in every instant see the river surge
with the pace and power of an untamed thoroughbred,

and render towers, gates and gold – and you –
grey-sunlit marshland overflown by birds.

Published in Earlyworks 2018 Anthology