POETRY, PROSE AND PAINTINGS

 

 

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      NUMBER 1 BRITANNIA STREET                     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Number one Britannia Street was a 'spike' or a hostle for homeless men. It was first published on UKAuthors.com

 

                  Today he found sixpence.

                  Not shiny bright,

                  Queen's headed sixpence.

                  The sixpence he stooped to pick up

                  was old and battered,

                  tarnished and thin

                  but sixpence still,

                  enough to buy a line

                  at Number 1 Britannia Street.

 

                  Yesterday, because it was sunny

                  he shuffled

                  down Belvoir Street,

                  sat in Town Hall Square, watched the man

                  paint the fountains,

                  gold and black,

                  found a dog end to smoke,

                  then made his way

                  back to the alley behind Woolworths.

 

                  Today is wet

                  rain soaks through

                  his layers of grease rich clothes

                  freezing his skin,

                  making him itch

                  as angry vermin bite.

                  But today he found sixpence,

                  enough to buy a line

                  at Number 1 Britannia Street.

 

                  In the morning he lies

                  cold and stiff

                  in the alley behind Woolworths,

                  stinking of piss,

                  his own,

                  someone else's,

                  his rigid hand clasped

                  around the neck

                  of a brown bottle

 

                  But today

                  he might find six pence

                  so it's worth moving,

                  worth the effort

                  of breathing and being.

                  Today might be the day

                  he finds another sixpence

                  enough to buy a line

                  at Number 1 Britannia Street.