A CAT'S EYE VIEW OF BIRMINGHAM...

 ‘A Cat’s Eye View Of Birmingham’…

A cat sits, its tail alert upon the dark tiles

Of a roof’s ridge,

Silhouetted against a miasma,

A malodorous haze

Of smog and bilious smoke

Which discharges from a forest of flues

And thus chokes

With a gaseous bile

Over the factories, the terraces and the back-to-backs…

Chimneys, like huge mallets or wrenches

Pressured by heat

And yet others warped like stove pipe hats

Rise like fingers or copse saplings

To where the fug might end

And where Birmingham might even breathe,

As smokestacks bend

To spill vile stenches

Over the factories, the terraces and the back-to-backs…

Pete Ray

A postcard from Mary B Harding’s book, ‘Comic and Novelty Postcards of Birmingham’, published by Maxam.

Cynicus published the original postcards…