OBSERVING MILL ROAD

Two females and a fat man

making shuffling sounds behind me,

letting me know they want to overtake

on a pavement three feet wide, and

eleven khaki-coloured alcoholics in a recess

caught in stop-frame as their black and gold

temptation tins are poised-but-not-quite-tilted.

Three black men in overcoats, bustling

like baptists planning to proselytise,

one caucasian crisply crossing towards Costa

with its hotspot. Kelsey Kerridge Leisure Centre

hosting a swimming event. This time the cranes

are very blue, not tinted by a low sun fuzzing

weekday afternoon aerosphere. I’m home,

and wondering what it’s like to have somewhere

to go with somebody whose company I enjoy. 

Solitude is for the choosing, and I wish there was

an app I could download to give me family

in the flesh, at the tapping of a finger.

But, based on past experience, sod that.