People stare, see the pack on the bench. Apart from a box

in my best friend's loft, this is it. My world in a park.

I took it to the Great Wall, hiking over bricks that had

toppled down a gorge. I had to climb gaps with another self

strapped to my back, wary of the dead that gather

in the turrets, still watching out for the Mongol hordes.

Each footstep was amplified, and my knuckles magnified,

gripping on stone once cut from a peak. In the breath

that I held when I dangled free, I had the whole universe,

right there. Fingertip size on a crimp of rock.

***

CHINA won the inaugural Poetry London Presents competition.