Car park’s dead, bottle banks castle corners,
rain shuffles across empty spaces.

Shopping trolleys block Safeway’s exit,
mongrels sniff for action,
high-tail it behind the Co-op.

The security man adores TV,
knowing the hours he’ll not live.

Then they arrive, wearing rainbows,
accusing grey,
from a world where melancholia is banned,
minor keys forcibly discouraged,
laughter, optimism obligatory.

Dog can’t believe its luck-
reversed and made a God!

They begin to dance, bang drums,
outrageous coloured costumes,
flattering air,
play violins, guitars, such joyful music-
shopping trolleys clapping
a synchronised beat.

This transcendental moment evaporates,
the dog witnessed events,
his tail’s unreliable.

The security man lost in a DVD,
the rest, us, too busy
watching rain attacking empty spaces.

Tom Kelly

To appear in
The Night Shift
Anthology
From Five Leaves Press
January 2010

http://www.inpressbooks.co.uk/the_night_shift_baron_michael_croft_andy_swann_jenny_eds_i019694.aspx
and in the collection
Somewhere in Heaven
to be launched Wednesday February 17th @ 6.00
Gallery North, Northumbria University

To be published by
Red Squirrel Press

http://www.redsquirrelpress.com/index.php?coming