Death in SE1

Eternity bawls across bollards and rain.
Emerging at the Elephant -
matt grey light shows the gutters wriggling,
massed headlights pushing through murk -
you feel first contact: more in that touch
than in anything you’ve known.
Delicate tracks of minibeasts
will never get closer to the ground.
Second contact pats you further down
(paving stones soften to guide you in). 
Everything works to yield to you now
as they lurch and speed away.
Third contact comes as shop fronts start to glow,
gathers up your nose, ears, eyes, mouth.
Thank God it has the softest hands.