Green, Stephanie: Meadow Lane Riffs, Edinburgh, jazzpoem

A punk thistle with mauve mohican

nods to its own beat and the riff of leaves,

traffic, sirens and sea-gulls.

Buccleugh Parish School is boarded up

but a rowan tree bursts out from the architrave,

berries red as STOP THE WAR on the wall.

Stevie, the janitor, his hair gelled in spikes,

leans against the door and tells me

'I write poetry too – funky rock and soul.'

The paws of invisible dogs

taking a short cut to the meadows

run for ever in concrete under the arch.