"Spring in London"

Tree-limbs lavishly

people Russel square

while rootless students

bury into the other

or into binders. Errant puffs

of pollen eddy about, and one

falls into my eye as I

descend bleary and weary

from a day at the library.

I drop onto the line,

and to my left, a child, face

speckled by black scabs, is held

in his father’s lap. The older women

across from us compete

for the attention of his look,

but from the corner, his eyes

glacier into view. As I exit, 

the yellow flare at the center

of my eyes extinguishes, 

a spider web shimmers 

clear before it catches a leaf

and cool shade arrives.


Andrew Rader Hanson is a native of Florida, and he took an interest in writing and literature and recently completed studies at UCL in London. He now lives in Miami, where among other things he works at a law firm, fishes on weekends, enjoys photography, lifts weights, and voraciously reads history, philosophy, and poetry. He has recently been accepted by The Broadkill Review, Clackamas Review, Ekphrastic Review, Streetlight Review, Birmingham Arts, and more.

"Spring in London"