Glossy Chestnut Browns…
(From Paul Gustav Fischer’s painting, about an evening view from Copenhagen’s Medical Association’s housing…)
A sense of reach and a need to escape the terraced enclosure
Pervades, as dull brown walls gleam chestnut behind a streetlight,
Whilst steep roofs and long chimneys pierce a bleak night sky.
A wooden rail, suggestive of containment, lies slightly awry
Across the silent courtyard, its houses huddled tight,
The few lit windows hinting at life’s guarded exposure.
A recruit of poverty, I peer from the darkness intrusive
And suddenly shiver in the coldness, alone and reclusive,
Pondering my helplessness and unrelenting shame
That being impoverished means to shoulder the blame…
Pete Ray
11th February 2025…
The homes were built outside the city between 1854 & 1872 for poor workers in Copenhagen, following a cholera outbreak in 1853.
It is now known as Brumbleby…
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