The business of renting office and retail space in Central London is almost intolerable. Empty properties stay closed for an age, years even. Yet landlords know that eventually someone will pay ‘the going rate’ and take on the shop, presumably recouping back the money they would have made from continued…

All at Sea . There’s a boat out to sea and the sky is slate. On the horizon a thin line of light and I can see rain falling to the south. There are people out early along the promenade. Some run. Some walk. …

A Thousand Stars. . Long after dusk The light shown From the moon On to your face Bright like love Lychee soft With a thousand stars To sing The long night away As half a moon Sings half a song And half of me Listens intently For the other half To sing along With me . In the morning Fine strands of web Stretch between branch and cowbell Sunlight catching As it lifts the day above the false horizon of the city.

F Train. 31 degrees. 34 tomorrow. In May. Global warming? Old wife’s tale. . The windows are, unsurprisingly, all open. I hear the F train exit Carroll Street and head south. Evening traffic is still grinding. There is no breeze. Just thick moist darkness and sirens. . I look at a map of Brooklyn on the wall and reckon it would take 5 hours to walk west to east, 10 south to north. Google maps says 2.5 and 4.3. Whatever, I have no plan to do either especially in this heat.