Rachel Spencer

London, UK

Rachel Spencer is a poet from central London.

Ascension

I’ve come to love the grimy steps

that tumble to our basement flat.

I used to joke it’s like the slum of town

but now it’s my own shrine to daylight

and the sun, where I can squint in worship

on the kitchen stool as slamming rays

hug-hit me like a scouring revelation.

It’s noon below the tarmac;

I hold squash and books in hand.

Here’s a corner altar, half-submerged, like carnival

by contrast to the sulky indoor air.

The disconnected sounds

of children skitting in the street

roll over me now, hard and healthy:

slice of iPhone talk, lemon-sharp,

each snatch a knuckle in my aching back

and particles pass through me

in the spring-like light –

a ladder rung to rest on, vantage point,

decompression chamber.