I used to waste time wishing for a different view

Through my bedroom window

Disillusioned with the urban vista

Hours spent sky-watching

For patches of blue

Behind clouds passing

Through the hessian weave

Of blinds swaying in the breeze

Tracing the trails of planes traversing

Over slate rooftops, chimney-stacks and pots

And higgledy-piggledy aerials

Somewhere a blackbird is singing eloquently as magpies chatter

And magically the wailing sirens momentarily fade

Along with the whir of helicopters

The horn of the non-stop train

And the roar of aeroplanes

Their sound bites recede, subside

Absorbed, into the humming soup of the city’s low rumble

Where the call of a crow is more profound

And so now I give thanks for my slice of the city

My home here has become

A place in the world where I belong

And no place in the world would I rather be

Finally I found my sanctuary

It was here all along