Did you wait

Did you wait

In the shadows

Out of the sun

Soft skin too easily burned

Waiting for the world to turn

A car backfiring

Followed by

The shrill cry of a minor bird

Mimicking the call

Of an old fox

Ogling chickens

In an allotment run

Behind main street.

On a Saturday

They show a movie

In the park

If it is dry

Bring a picnic

Sit on the grass

Amongst broken glass

And bottle tops

It could have been so many things

You heard

In the silence between times

When the mind was pining

For nostalgia

As a lone pickup

In battleship grey

Held together with rust

Trundles down an unmade street

With nowhere left to go

But the quayside

It is too hot to care

The ferry is late today

You will leave

With it

And the memory

Of this place will

Go with you

Romanticised

As these holiday islands are

Good to remember

But a mistake

To come back to

Especially alone.