Lives

Lives

Drip dried

Hung on clotheslines

Hidden in dumpsters

Behind restaurants

Emptied into trucks

Taken to the waste tip

Out of town

Piled onto garbage

Broken kitchen gadgets

Worn out furniture

Old lifestyle choices.

Dirty linen

In a basket

Nappies and babygrows

Piled in the trash

With the leftovers

And remainders

Broken boxes on the corner

In the alley

Underneath the arches

A compact prefab

Recycle me.

Blow down my house

It is an eyesore.

Veterans with backache

Who can’t afford

A chiropractor

Or a Chelsea Tractor

Old cars with flat tyres

Spider webs and telegraph wires

Parking notices

Police aware

Surrounded by windfall.

Leaf blowers

Keep to the main streets

With more space

And fresher air.

Lives

Behind walls

Beneath canvas

Under the stairs

Secret stories

Never told

Rarely heard

The Police turn a deaf ear

A blind eye.

Old lives totter

Down uneven steps

Into a basement

Full of cassette tapes

And vinyl

Lost in reminiscence

Among the paper

Stacks of ancient history

Tied up with string.

Old lives are fire hazards

In need of an extinguisher

Nobody sees them

Until you need one

And there it is

Propping open a door

Blocking the exit

In the bloomin' way

There to be tripped over

Immoveable

Useless articles

That they are.