To celebrate World Poetry Day on Thursday 20 March, one of our reporters has written an ode to Hackney. In Hackney Downs, at 31 Maury Road, sits a hedge trimmed into the shape of a caterpillar. It is listed as a tourist attraction on Google Maps.
The Caterpillar Hedge - Vadim Goss
On the pavement's edge
of a quiet-worn street, who is saying hello?
The caterpillar's hedge!
Its green fur blankets the birds who will fledge
to build their own hearts one day, when they go
from the pavement's edge.
Passers-by take the pledge,
a tradition cemented long ago,
honouring the caterpillar hedge
and how it bloomed to a whole from a wedge:
a seed to a life (perhaps it was Miracle Grow)
on the pavement's edge.
The guardian of its ledge;
it watches over Maury Road in sun, rain and snow.
But perhaps the caterpillar hedge
is lonely — it could do with a sedge,
a friend to stop the wind to blow;
a companion to make its leaves glow,
as it waits to become a butterfly hedge.
Vadim Goss is the correspondent for Hackney Downs. He has previously written for Palatinate — Durham University's award-winning newspaper, where he served as an editor. He has also written for Indigo Magazine, Wayzgoose Magazine, and The Dove where he was editor-in-chief. If you need anyone for a pub quiz on The Great Gatsby, he is your man.