Homesickness (2010)
“If not bevelled, the edges blended into the cement-coloured (overcast) sky. The downpipes of houses, the edges of elms and the poles, the outline of a man’s nose and forehead blur with the air, a type of barnacle or optical protoplasm—opposite to the startling clarity of the Southern Hemisphere, There was a heavy steadiness. Untidy stateliness. Even the air seemed old.
Permanence (stone), ancient power of seats and establishments, stone fingertips and pigeon shit: grey, all weighed down and rai...ned upon.
Order, order! Time had worn channels in the city, but smoothed the faces of the English. In a bus which suffered from respiratory problems the group gradually approached the centre, channelled by the houses and bevelled hedges which immediately closed in behind (the jungle in Africa, the maze at Hampton Court); yet once at the centre there was no ‘centre’. It was somewhere else. Rolls/Bentleys blurred past all aglitter, tall cabs knocked on diesel—immensely practical; and Jaguars, dark Daimlers with the gold line hand-painted along the side (patience: handed down), and small Triumphs, labouring Hillmans, Morgans and many Morrises—miles of Oxfords and Minors, like those rows of trimmed houses.MoreLess
Permanence (stone), ancient power of seats and establishments, stone fingertips and pigeon shit: grey, all weighed down and rai...ned upon.
Order, order! Time had worn channels in the city, but smoothed the faces of the English. In a bus which suffered from respiratory problems the group gradually approached the centre, channelled by the houses and bevelled hedges which immediately closed in behind (the jungle in Africa, the maze at Hampton Court); yet once at the centre there was no ‘centre’. It was somewhere else. Rolls/Bentleys blurred past all aglitter, tall cabs knocked on diesel—immensely practical; and Jaguars, dark Daimlers with the gold line hand-painted along the side (patience: handed down), and small Triumphs, labouring Hillmans, Morgans and many Morrises—miles of Oxfords and Minors, like those rows of trimmed houses.MoreLess
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