Download audio file read by Glyn Moody.
As I look across the successive waves of Clap-
ham rooftops lapping gently down to the dip
Of Northcote Road, then up to the twinkling hap-
hazard stars of the commuting Jumbos in the strip
Of worn and washed-out sky heading to Heath-
row, I note a vague similarity in the flash-
es of ruby brake-lights along the wet street beneath
Me, triggered by the pizza delivery bloke dash-
ing back to base on his L-plated puttering mo-
ped; but I think of the twin-prop job, and my lug-
age on the tarmac, surrounded by machine-gun to-
ting Indian paras, as I waited to shoot out of Srinag-
ar, above the frozen sea of Himalayan peaks, past Nang-
a Parbat, to be grazed almost by its jagged fang.
ham rooftops lapping gently down to the dip
Of Northcote Road, then up to the twinkling hap-
hazard stars of the commuting Jumbos in the strip
Of worn and washed-out sky heading to Heath-
row, I note a vague similarity in the flash-
es of ruby brake-lights along the wet street beneath
Me, triggered by the pizza delivery bloke dash-
ing back to base on his L-plated puttering mo-
ped; but I think of the twin-prop job, and my lug-
age on the tarmac, surrounded by machine-gun to-
ting Indian paras, as I waited to shoot out of Srinag-
ar, above the frozen sea of Himalayan peaks, past Nang-
a Parbat, to be grazed almost by its jagged fang.
(10.2.1999)
