It can all disappear

It can all disappear

So quickly.

Behind closed doors

There is magic,

Lovers kiss

The heat of their bodies

Warming the room.

Outside on the street

Below a sign for quarter-pounders

With extra cheese

Young men and women

Who look older than their years

Swap apathetic looks

For food stamps

Leaving their futures

On hold

Until the clocks change

They have nowhere to go

But walk back and forth

To keep from freezing over

Like the pond

In the park

Where the religious zealots

Disguised as crows

Sing Hallelujah

From a climbing frame

Jacob’s ladder

Nearer thy god

Go thee.

There was a time

Before luck turned

The tyre burst

The plane crashed

The markets burned

When there was music

To make love to

You could hear the grass grow

We had tender feet

And daisy chains

Were obligatory

Softening the heart

Easier to target

For the hard-hearted

With the bullwhips

Marching bands

And jackboots

Crunching through morning

A Salvation Army no more.

Sundays could be bloody

But now they reek

Of immorality

As the magic splutters

Behind steel shutters

And the last lovers

Die of frostbite

On the front step

Of the poorhouse next door

To the abattoir.