Monopoly

 Paul Farley          

We sat like slum landlords around the board

buying each other out with fake banknotes,

until we lost more than we could afford,

or ever hope to pay back. Now our seats

are empty - one by one we left the game

to play for real, at first completely lost

in this other world, its building sites, its rain;

but slowly learned the rules and made our own,

stayed out of jail and kept our noses clean.

And now there's only me - sole freeholder

of every empty office space in town,

and from the quayside I can count the cost

each low tide brings - the skeletons and rust

of boats, cars, hats, boots, iron, a terrier.