{"id":12960,"date":"2025-07-04T14:10:25","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T13:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12960"},"modified":"2025-12-20T13:16:55","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T12:16:55","slug":"2-poems-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12960","title":{"rendered":"2 poems"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
Image: \u00a9 Courtesy of Manchester City Galleries<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I Think That\u2019s What Love Is<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I find you in the small canteen. The noise around an elegant TV mast. Oh god, the sadness. A series of paving slabs implanted into a field like a proto-spine or a history of unstructured gangrene. I eat my wet sandwich like a baby magpie, listing everything I can think of that might be the opposite of death in this suitor\u2019s eyes. Charcoal. She asks me to draw an eye and I put all the red lines in and the skin has no elastic. The ground is polystyrene deep; I step into it with the grace of a fake plant. The metal grass, the paperclip trees, and my arms, my legs, surrender. I blink droplets of solder like a steady flow of where-did-you-get-those earrings. This sandwich touches me in the soul because of the brassic wind and the straining aperture daylight and this plaque I\u2019m reading, the painted white letters in their neutral parental font telling me gently of the awful things that used to happen here. There will be a moment, at the base this hill, when I\u2019m warm again and perhaps a home will appear.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Arise Today<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

when we build again, we must not repeat our old mistakes
<\/em>Lynsey Hanley<\/p>\n

Over two thousand offices arise today through a mighty strength, on the burial ground of Birmingham Central Library (1973\u20132016).<\/p>\n

Lidl arises today through a mighty strength, on the burial ground of Bradford and Bingley Building Society HQ (1974\u20132017).<\/p>\n

Tesco Extra arises today through a mighty strength, on the burial ground of Trinity Square Car Park, Gateshead (1967\u20132010).<\/p>\n

Aldi arises today through a mighty strength, on the burial ground of Derwent Tower (1972\u20132012).<\/p>\n

Asda arises today through a mighty strength, on the burial ground of the Brynmawr Rubber Factory (1953\u20132001).<\/p>\n

Sainsbury\u2019s arises today through a mighty strength, on the burial ground of Gilbey\u2019s Gin HQ, Harlow (1963\u20131993).<\/p>\n

Lidl arises today through a mighty strength, on the burial ground of the Silhouette Corset Factory, Market Drayton (1966\u20132002).<\/p>\n

A ground-level open-air car park arises today through a mighty strength, on the burial ground of the Tricorn Centre, Southampton (1966\u20132004).<\/p>\n

Nothing arises today through a mighty strength, on the burial ground of the Super Swimming Stadium, Morecambe (1936\u20131976).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

____<\/p>\n

Lydia Unsworth<\/strong> is a poet based in Greater Manchester, whose recent collections include\u00a0Arthropod (Death of Workers Whilst Building Skyscrapers),\u00a0Mortar (Osmosis), and Gag (above \/ ground). Her work has appeared in many journals and anthologies including\u00a0Oxford Poetry and Shearsman Magazine. Her newest collection,\u00a0Stay Awhile, is coming out in January with Knives Forks and Spoons and she is undergoing a PhD at Manchester Metropolitan University, exploring kinship with disappearing post-industrial architecture.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image: \u00a9 Courtesy of Manchester City Galleries   I Think That\u2019s What Love Is I find you in the small canteen. The noise around an elegant TV mast. Oh god, the sadness. A series of paving slabs implanted into a field like a proto-spine or a history of unstructured gangrene. I eat my wet sandwich […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[432,433],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n2 poems - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12960\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2 poems - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Image: \u00a9 Courtesy of Manchester City Galleries   I Think That\u2019s What Love Is I find you in the small canteen. 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