Air Is Not 

Talking Silk


Surrounded by bag carrying colleagues, a KC
in long wig, black knee breeches and stockings
strode behind me on Fetter Lane one March afternoon.

Out of the corner of my eye, it was as if
I’d slipped centuries, back to when the fire
in a city bakery was nothing of concern.

Reality was plain from his post-lockdown beard,
salted with necessary gravitas.

Then another, flanked by her parents and pushing
a buggie, hands through new lace cuffs
as she guided her child in the right direction.

Law in the streets on silk day –
the randomness I love about London.


Kate Noakes’ most recent collection is Goldhawk Road (Two Rivers Press, 2023). She is completing her PhD at the University of Reading on contemporary British and American poetry and the breath. Her website is:www.boomslangpoetry.blogspot.com