When Borders Changed

The City seemed so far away,
until it came to me and swallowed
my address. From Romford Essex
to London Havering: I was annexed
by the GLC, though I might have lived
in Romchurch Borough, but for the voters -
who would vouchsafe the Tories two decades
of dictatorship - who chose a name
from history. Like the flyover
at Gallows Corner, or the car park
in Ducking Stool Court, behind
the Shopping Arcade that still proclaimed
Rumford, I remained unchanged when borders
changed. Yet somehow lost my accent.