A man eating salad from a plastic box
for lunch on a bench in the sun claimed that he
had grown up in nearby Redcliffe Gardens and
had never known the barred gate to be unlocked
at the bend in King’s Road close to the World’s End.

Now this once hidden place is open Wednesday,
God’s acre of mowed grass with level stone plaques
in line equidistantly placed feet apart.
Beneath each of the plaques a Moravian
buried erect waits for Resurrection Day.

The Royal Borough of Chelsea has been hit
by a force seven Himalayan earthquake.
A man stands waist deep in his burial hole,
his hands on the grass, with these thoughts in his head:
Is this it? Was that the sound of the last trump?
Is it time to go?