Duty-Free at City Airport
Michelle Madsen

Dear passenger of the air
Before you board your plane
And jet off to a glamorous destination
For business or for pleasure
Consider the place you are leaving
No, not the office
Or the shiny towers of the city
Or your lovely, designer-clad home
(Unless you live under the runway)
Because I am talking about the streets around you
The pavement and alleys of Newham

You wouldn't know where you were by the name
City of London, serving the important and busy
An airport for the city and of the city
But not even close to being in the city
Instead the jets scream over the streets of Poplar
And wail over Beckton
The air growing thick with fumes

Dear passenger
Consider the cost of ill-conceived convenience
An executive portal with invisible walls
A million mental miles away from the communities that surround it
Consider not the growth and expansion of a luxury terminus
Benefitting the lucky few
But a re-purposing of land in this
Home-stretched city
To create a Newham that is a destination in itself
And not a car park for planes
Consider, for once
Not speedy-boarding
A last dash shop for sunglasses
But perhaps
The convenience and comfort of others
And let London breathe.

Michelle Madsen is a poet and journalist. She is the founder and host of Hammer and Tongue London, part of the UK’s largest slam poetry network, and has performed across the globe on stages, in tents and the occasional treehouse. Having made her small screen debut on the BBC’s ‘Why Poetry Matters’ series in 2000, Michelle has appeared on various other programmes including the World Service and NTS Radio. In March 2014, she published her debut collection of poetry, Alternative Beach Sports.

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