London Suite IV: Crystal Palace

we’ll catch the train to the town
with the name that we would have
created stories about as children

whole realms of mythical animals
where full-maned stars grazed
leaves of enchanted elms
in a blue night, a destination
where one might quest
through a whole kitchen
drawer of desert lands
self-saucing fates

my little big sister
broken ankle, tender and tough
hoving toward me, three legged
as a sphinx’s riddle
fit and lean and Londonising
i’m in awe of her, always struck
that i don’t know when it happened
how her branches grew past me
into other tales