‘Snapshots of Oxford—July 20, 2025’: A Poem by Paul A. Freeman

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Snapshots of Oxford—July 20, 2025

The drowsy wasps that kept me on my toes;
The groups of foreign students herded by;
The constant stop and look, the selfie pose;
The intermittent rain, then hot and dry.

A city with its dreaming spires on view;
The enigmatic Wheatsheaf where I sat;
A pillar box the post office imbue
With colour, through a rainbow rasta hat.

The folk from ’cross the Pond who find it twee;
The local scholars holding forth with flair;
The cobbled streets and lanes with much to see;
The pubs with real ale and English fare.

This famous place of learning, Oxford boasts
Much more than academia’s holy ghosts.

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Paul A. Freeman is the author of Rumours of Ophir, a crime novel which was taught in Zimbabwean high schools and has been translated into German. In addition to having two novels, a children’s book and an 18,000-word narrative poem (Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers!) commercially published, Paul is the author of hundreds of published short stories, poems and articles.