A STRANGER IN A STRANGE TOWN

 

I walk down unfamiliar streets

Exploring, searching

I came upon a market square

Full of hubbub

Stall holders calling out their wares

Amidst the background noise of chatter

Babies’ cry and women gossip

An argument ensues

Between trader and punter

Words are exchanged

Just out of earshot

“Asylum seeker” was all I could make out

A trader or a punter?

I moved on

It was a typical spring day

Too hot for a coat

Too cold to go without

As I leave the market, I passed an office building

Smoker’s skulk outside

Social pariahs

Consigned to the gutter

With the other misfits and addicts

I pass people on mobiles

All talking loudly

I lose count of the number

Teenagers chatting

What on earth do they have to say?

Whatever! Bovvered?

I stop at a pavement café

To my left sit a party of French

I thought how apt it was

And how when the coalition went to war

To fight global terrorism

The French went to lunch

To my right sat a mixed group

A forty-something female

Holding court over a younger crowd

Celebrating a 22^nd birthday

The oldest in the group by some distance

Was obviously angling to put another notch in her headboard

On the farthest table sat

A party of downs syndrome sufferers

One kept blowing raspberries of admirable proportions

And another was doing chimp impressions

The birthday group obviously found them amusing

Remarking “he looked like Clyde from the Eastwood movie”

Why do people have to be so unkind?

A passerby said loudly

“Look at the window lickers”

What a vile world it can be

The waitress arrives

Complete with tattoos and multiple piecings

Wearing an ill-fitting skirt and blouse

Making her look like a badly stuffed pincushion

I’m sure she felt she was making a statement

Presumably to the fashion police.

She eventually took my order

Why can’t you just get a coffee anymore?

I continued my journey

Along the pavement

To avoid stopping at a red signal

A cyclist mounted the pavement

Scatting pedestrians in all directions

In response to calls

His reply was at best unarticulated

Mostly he just gesticulated

I decided to go back to the hotel