On this my first night here the house bristles with life around me,
I listen to competing calls, whose unfamiliar tongues command.
Streets kid’s playing football, Manchester and Arsenal below The Mount,
The fragrant waft of Orange Groves, my senses overload.

A red sky wipes itself to black, Cross and Crescent bejewel the night,
feline skip invaders pick the flesh off lesser lives,
they see me come and slow my step, but they belong, not I,
unflinching from their well marked place, it’s I who pass them by.

Yesterday I left my mark
today my mark breaks virgin ground,
I lay my head at last to rest
and drink in every new-heard sound.

©Wolfgar 2/2018