<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Locked Out<\/strong><\/p>\n The sun burned orange and its touch The red brick blocks Laughter Chinese-whispered With your shiny shoes side-lined Your suit corner tickled ground You traced the pavement\u2019s shrapnel with a stick Doors opened and closed and Your hunger rolled <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\nDeepened from a\u00a0careless brush
\nTo a firm hold
\nAnd only you
\nCould hear its groans
\nAs it dragged its curtain down the sky<\/p>\n
\nLining your street
\nDarkened to red wine teeth
\nAnd you sat outside like a crack
\nOn the lips of suburbia\u2019s tired smile<\/p>\n
\nThrough mews and lanes
\nRolling rubber and crunching gravel
\nSwirled the petrol
\nPooled on your tongue<\/p>\n
\nYou shuffled your dirty socks up the curb
\nLike looking for the curves of last night\u2019s sleep
\nIn the bed that\u2019s just a distant dream<\/p>\n
\nUnfamiliar to you now
\nBut that once grazed your skin
\nWhen evenings in the wilderness
\nKept your young heart beating<\/p>\n
\nEarth\u2019s bits, sent by silent wind
\nA ruler line of ants file past and
\nYou wonder if you’ll ever slot back in<\/p>\n
\nYou heard the vacuum
\n(The clock-tick for vagrant ears)
\nOf someone else’s home
\nMeeting the feral breeze<\/p>\n
\nThrough driveways and neighbours
\nBoth dimpled with heavy loads
\nAnd through the dancing branches
\nDelicately lining the street
\nHiding the windows
\nBlowing out synchronised meals
\nYou watched the birds breathe
\nDrawn to their fragility
\nBut a tiny twitch
\nAnd you’re alone again
\nNature knows your alliance
\nIs only for one night<\/p>\n