Paper Towns

 All along the Mercy Road

in six month empty

paper towns,

elderly people in torn slippers

walk painfully

down rusty nail footpaths.

Their cotton bags : half full

hold forgotten out of date tins

of meat and dried fruit,

as they chat to each other

about childhood, romance 

and warm hands.

Life is ending here

these places once called home

and memories will soon be forgotten

as nature wipes away 

all marks of living.

Mercy Road

Steve Coel

Mercy Road

Steve Coel

Walking Notes

Steve Coel

An 11.59 Publication

Half Stolen Buildings

 In regulation daytime armour

cracking with coarse whispers

and yesterdays broken promise,

the young girl pushes

her vape shadowed baby carrier

past steamed up shop windows.

Her world is the High Street

where each day

a bitter grey tide

shambles downhill

towards abandoned blue churches

and disappearing city light.

And it is here

her plastic shoes slap

into one off needles

that litter fishless gutters

and where even on dry days

the pavement is damp.

High Street

Steve Coel

Walking Notes

Steve Coel

An 11.59 Publication