Urban Decay

Relic of a raucous night's revel In an empty shop doorway Stands a solitary cider bottle sentinel Bundles of bedding. Beneath Huddles a barely visible body Whom I have to skirt around Shop windows blacked out and blinded With nothing to offer but silence No clink of cash registers here Sprouting up in this desert The cacti of fast food outlets and poundshops Cheap takeaways and cheap goods at throwaway prices Buskers booming out their ballads Their desperate music fills the air Echoing the city's despair The reek of commercial cancer does abound A city hub,soon to be the dead centre With the tumbleweed of litter blowing all around