THE DOOR SWINGS ON IT’S HINGES:

A door closed gently,
A name sprayed crudely,
Sheep pressed lips into dry grass,
Dead wood,
Fire,
Cows,
Mouths pressed into sweet grass,
A big man hunts in tall grass for something lost,

We breath each other’s breath,
Cocooned in metal,
Youths gather down by the river,
The last of Summer’s colours,
Furtive glances ringed in Red & White,
And high metal fences,
Smelling like a new night out,

A small wooden house,
A wig of weeds,
A face pressed into cool Green grass,
An owner’s name I wasn’t meant to see,
Concealed on the back of a road sign,

A bird,
A bird,
A deep cut in the dirt filled with water,

A procession of Yellow crosses,
A hooded screen,
A closed cupboard that keeps opening,
A dangerous vision in the wrong hands,
Which are the right hands?
UNITED – written by hand,
In Black paint on a brick wall,

A small brick house,
Sightless,
A memory of war,
Signs with single numbers,
Bicycles with fat Green tyres,
Sleeping in grass along the sides of roads,
A twist of bright Red metal,
Like a pretzel lying in dirt,

Numbers on walls that mean something to someone,
But not me,
Two small Red lights like eyes,
No mouth,
A mouth conveying bitter hurt by phone,
A concrete bridge evokes a time when there was hope,
A leaning metal bench shuns sitters,
A signs that reads – ‘TALK TO US’

A door closed gently,
A name sprayed crudely,
Rivers of old tyres,
Flowers judged to be weeds,
Plastic chairs abandoned under plastic tables,
At the back of factory units,
Silent,
Empty,
In preparation for tomorrow’s action,

A man runs his fingers through his hair,
Beneath a concrete sky,
A neon sun,
A crack crudely patched in a brick wall,
An old fan to ease the heat,
Dead wood trees point to the sky,
A setting sun,
Sandbags piled by the side of the road,
Eyes too tired to open,

A fleeting memory of indiscretion,
A cluster of coloured balls waiting to be kicked,
A door that used to go somewhere,
Half-way up a wall,
A woman leaning,
A man fiddling,
Another reading,
Showing his knees to the sky,
Did you expect anything less?

 

(K)