‘Tenement Building’ (black & white photograph), Chris Kilip, Tate Britain, 2014.


you view the house from across the street

part of a terrace      it fills the frame

the roof is cut off     no sky      dim light
upstairs      a balcony

door      window      bricked-up      defiant

downstairs      a curtain is torn

you move in closer      but can’t see into the room

front door     pint of milk on the step

dustbin on the kerb      
it’s the pint of milk that disturbs you

you wait      if you wait      surely someone

will fetch in the milk …
not even a sparrow pecks at the silver-top

the house      bereft of sound

is like the backdrop to a disused stage

rain has left sheen on the tarmac
a month later      you read:

bull-dozers arrived      like thunder