Sand
Martin Figura

A little Midlands new town with nothing left
to make or do, or mountains to speak of
and no-one passing through. The bypass
exit sign does not say An Historic Market Town.

No stately home, cathedral, cobbled streets,
no green or pond, no ducks, no honey-stoned
second homes; just overspill without blue
plaques. The town hall is an office block.

Still they won’t just chuck it in
and with a grant, men turn themselves
brick by brick into a museum
while their nimble-fingered wives

fashion jewellery from circuit boards,
components and coloured wires
to stock the shelves by the postcard rack
and stacks of books of bygone days.

The town has edged itself with sand,
the one-way-circuit, a never-ending
coastal road. Hold a shell to your ear
and hear the rush of the M6/M5 intersection.

Bunting hangs from shop to shop, the precinct
is ablaze, a promenade of windows blind
with Union Jacks, a mural by a local artist
adorns the underpass. The marketing’s rolled out

to Leamington Spa, to Droitwich, to Telford
to Ashby-de-la-Zouch and all points in between.
On the next bank holiday everybody waits:
the dripping hanging baskets, the portly mayor

in chains; the goose-pimpled beauty queen;
kids holding maypole ribbons, balloons or flags;
the Sealed Knot done up as Mods and Rockers
ready for the battle of sixty-four (on the hour,

every hour); a maze; a brass band tuning up; the Lost
Children’s Hut; seagulls in a cloudless sky; vendors
of buckets, spades and fudges; the committee wearing
Can I Help You badges.

Martin Figura is a poet, teacher, photographer, and Randy Newman fan - but mostly a poet. His show Whistle was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry and his book Boring the Arse Off Young People is published by Nasty Little Press.

Well Versed is edited by Jody Porter.
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