The long Bristol Road opens up before me like an exotic river,

one that as a child was out of bounds to the

future Oxfordshire estuary Selly Park boy,

living in the tributary that fed the equally

impressive cod feeding grounds of the Pershore Road mainstem

and yet one that became enticingly familiar

as I encroached down the affluence felt of Tiverton Road to go swimming,

or take up the football cause on the open space

of the wild and hauntingly beautiful ‘rec, daring myself

to venture into this other land plagued by family members