Vessels

Matins 344 Portsoken (Make Me A Viceroy) Sing Luna, Sing Saviour Lace Bill Neate & the Gas-man Another Folly Under This Light, Through the Night-dress Blush & Haggard August





Portsoken (Make Me A Viceroy)





O, for a squirt of vinegar vapour! Christ, I nearly burst in a tongue-stroke.
Trickles of verdigris trim the pink stone, tile the plague-hole.

Raised a sweet boy, my manners and my god make me a viceroy.
Wayfarers lap for favours... for money... o my god, make me a viceroy.

Soiled as the Houndsditch, brazen and marbled, my investments bound
in the lace-rag ribbons of under-things... I will meet her, tear the veil from her.




A map of Portsoken from the 1720 edition of Stow's survey of London Aldgate A sponge soaked in vinegar Notes on verdigris Beaufort House, St. Botolph Street (RHWL, 1988) St. Botolph (patron saint of journeymen) sits on a busy roundabout just outside the Aldgate Petticoat Lane market by Joanna Moore Wayfarers British Bengal, 1853

Ratcliffe Orchard





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2010