IN RESPONSE TO A SUNDAY TIMES NEWS REVIEW ARTICLE.

Recently some people
Have been seen scaling
The grand new altitudes of London Town;
For the thrill of it,
Or to make political statements,
Or simply just to abseil or base jump
From these lustrous skyscrapers.

And others have found
The forgotten tunnels and tracks
Of underground railway stations appealing;
Exploring more deeply
Than security guards dare to
And filming their exploits
To share with a similarly wired world.

And they term it
Urban exploring,
As if it were an after work hobby,
And revel in the hell of it,
And tell their tales of tall buildings
Or crawl spaces where they barely evaded
The clutching hands of the man.

And good for them,
And their affirmation of life;
Their finger to the risk-averse
Who work in the city,
And travel the dirty tube routes to get there,
But personally I dislike heights and spiders
And think such things just a little bit mindless.