Rain likely tonight.
A grey palette falling
on a spray-painted desert.
Tumbleweed tabloids
loiter in a vacant lot,
spouting lurid tales
to flaccid fag ends
and plastic-lid layabouts.
A soiled circus poster
clings desperately to the door
of a deserted dance hall.
Its fat-faced clowns struggling
A soiled circus poster
clings desperately to the door
of a deserted dance hall.
Its fat-faced clowns struggling
to remember laughter,
and wondering what the hell
happened to Weary Willie.
Dark-kitchen couriers
dashing down back alleys.
Hot-bag cheeseburgers
chilling in transit --
spicier than the neon nude
flickering on a rooftop
like a spent red giant.
Wooden forks mark the trail
to a kebab van on a side road.
Hansel queues, while Gretel
gags on fumes of frying offal.
‘These bleedin’ chips are cold’,
shouts a half-pissed punter
bent on a spot of bovver.
Then it poured.
Like some uptown sommelier
serving rain-clean streets
to a bankrupt council,
the clowns in tears,
the wooden forks floating off,
and the way back lost.
happened to Weary Willie.
Dark-kitchen couriers
dashing down back alleys.
Hot-bag cheeseburgers
chilling in transit --
spicier than the neon nude
flickering on a rooftop
like a spent red giant.
Wooden forks mark the trail
to a kebab van on a side road.
Hansel queues, while Gretel
gags on fumes of frying offal.
‘These bleedin’ chips are cold’,
shouts a half-pissed punter
bent on a spot of bovver.
Then it poured.
Like some uptown sommelier
serving rain-clean streets
to a bankrupt council,
the clowns in tears,
the wooden forks floating off,
and the way back lost.
John Walter Taylor
© All rights reserved
8 November 2026
