Poetry

Street View

Jennifer Compton

 

I install Google Earth

—it takes some time—

behold! the Planet.

Where I live.

I touch the cursor

swim downwards

—or perhaps I fall—

towards Australia

and the very house

the husband bought

with my blessing

on a no fault bonus.

Looks quite leafy

huddled in trees

close to the shops

and the station.

But strangely murky

as I juggle to view it

from street level

—that’s a new function—

due out soon. People

with cameras are even

now! driving your street

filming your letterbox.

It’s not real time

—the mistake I made—

they are shooting us from

the past into the future.