Residents only

By night the supermoon
           and by day a fierce sun
burnishing the dry leaves
           of the copper beech

A whole year has passed
           for this moment in time
to return and it is as though
           in all that interval
nothing happened
           last year a spider hung
from a flimsy web
           stretching from a nook
in the ceiling
           to the skylight

I watched as it travelled
           back and forth
counting the tiny prey
           it had accrued
and then one day
           it was gone
all swept away
           and I wonder when
the next one will appear
           and by the bank
of the Union Canal close to
           Kensal Green Cemetery wall
a locked gate with a sign
           residents only

John Lyons