There were only cities and the quantum in-
terstices between them. On a hill leading
up to the edge – where unwary travellers
fell into the warp space of bus lanes – I found
a black cat in a cage. He said: ‘burn again,
learn again, never return again’ in the
language of bells from the beyond time. I left
a sample in the local bar and drank beer
in the clinic waiting room. There were esca-
lators, but they could only take me to the
past, where my skin was sloughing from my legs and
my toes emerging like snakes. From Archway to
New York was only one stop on the Tube. The
shadow of the Siamese Twin Towers was
a ghost haunting grave zero, whose presence possessed
nothing but gravity, yet bent the Greenwich
line like a circus strongman’s act. In the myth-
teria of London’s fabled woods, I found
the High Gate and locked it against encroaching
hordes. I turned the same key to release the cat.
