Dead Centre of London Town

It was autumn and ting
No need to set the scene
You've seen this scene before
You know?
Trees shedding skin
Rogue leaves no longer in vogue
September Issue out of fashion
The baton passing from
That season to this.

Stood at the gates
At the Dead Centre of London Town
Highgate Cemetary thought it was done
So I broke in
Scaled the wall
Unseen and wandered around
Chaperoned under full Lunar Patrol.

Through this minor act of criminality
Philosophically
I learnt a pertinent thing.
I learnt that No-one Ever Really Dies
Because I'm telling you that place was alive.
I heard
bristling
rustling
restlessness
creaking and croaking and weightlessness.

Whilst I had the temerity to jump the wall in the first place
I'm no Billy Big Bollocks -
I'm not ashamed to admit that I was spooked.

But as I pondered, I remembered that
No-one Ever Really Dies
and that this place is alive.
So I danced with graves
the whole night through
consoled by that thought.