Inside the mirror

stars cast like glitter on a velvet sheet,

Mars glinting like a ruby at dusk,

a fox picking its way across fresh snow,

leaving an alphabet of footprints.

A cormorant waiting with the patience of stone

on the rocks at Carbis Bay,

a black taxi crawling like a polished beetle,

up Oxford street,

an empty bus shelter on The Broadway,

beneath sullen,grey skies.