Sacred City (Ode to Milton Keynes)

[heslopian]

The town is square and grey, an altar cloth
in open fields. A boulevard divides
the rising and the setting sun. The hill
which rooted Joseph's staff may not be here,
but Nature's sweets and idols are. A witch
I kissed one Summer's night is bearing bread
and stones. I watch her through a pub window.
Her rites are held in tree preserves, where love
and leaves are one with light, each soul a part
of Earth's design. I kissed her there, beneath
a stooping tree. She laughed and lost my name.
I walked to work the next morning with grief.
A fleeting lust, a sudden warmth, a tree
behind us, old and stooped, yet now this grey.

[Wildcard]

Always great to read you, Jack.

"She laughed and lost my name." I could just you for that line

[heslopian]

Thanks, Wildcard I'm glad you liked that line.

[snilloc]

I worked in MK for 22 years and only just thought about this.

"A boulevard divides the rising and the setting sun."

East meets west.

[heslopian]

Thanks for the comment, snilly That line you quoted was a reference to Midsummer Boulevard

[snilloc]

Thanks for the comment, snilly That line you quoted was a reference to Midsummer Boulevard

I know I got the "Point"

[snilloc]

Can I ask why Milton Keynes?
News readers have no knowledge of it's pronunciation.
Traffic Sally calls it Milen keynes
I think I know the answer.
I think I know the pub.
I do know the people.
But then theres the rub.

Stoney Stratford has the best grub.

[heslopian]

Can I ask why Milton Keynes?

One of my university textbooks has a chapter about sacred spaces in England. I was studying it recently, and it had a section on Milton Keynes, a modern, functional city partly designed to have a certain "sacred" appeal, with, for instance, its Midsummer Boulevard. That's what "inspired" this poem.