'SHIRLEY TRIANGLE COLLAGE': A NEW POEM...

Shirley Triangle Collage

Busy like the random collage

Of a complicated street scene:

Colours are slapped on like spillage,

With mayhem rife, distractions keen…

So I lift off the vehicles with pluck,

 And the wintry trees’ silhouettes black;

I remove the garage and its fuel truck

Then strip the glistening tarmac…

The red and yellow of Shell, the glowing green traffic control

And the Tanworth Lane homes are all hastily peeled;

The hurly-burley is stripped down to essentials,

So that Shirley’s history can be revealed…

Bland, a quiet nook, quite disparate,

From a distant, vintage, simpler age:

Along empty lanes wires communicate,

And a meagre signpost one’s eyes engage…  

The collage removed, modernity gone,

Old Shirley’s peace and its tranquility,

Render me humble, for what’s done is done

And the loss of the past is Solihull’s culpability…

Pete Ray

December 2016

Two images of the ‘Triangle’, where the Stratford Road and Tanworth Lane move apart.

The old image is so rural, the new one, taken on Tuesday 13th December of just about the same view, almost seems like a collage of stickers, showing vehicles, a garage, traffic lights and modern houses, pavements and roads, has been added over an original scene.

I just wanted to remove it all…