Framed by the setting yellow sun

By the roaring motorway and tarmac lines of cars

Pumping out their rush hour fumes

The brick houses and shops stand shabbily

and scruffy people hang about by the cheap booze shop

They look down at their mobile phones

for unimportant messages.

A dog soils the pavement and runs blindly across the road

nearly causing a crash

when I comment to the guy watching he says

‘Sorry, speak no English’

He walks away carrying an ASDA carrier bag

narrowly missed by two youths on skateboards.

Over by the park the skateboard area stands empty

And an old man lights a cigarette and remembers

when this all was farmland.

It was better then though he sometimes feels guilty

because he stole an apple from the orchard

one evening,

Framed by the setting yellow sun.