Baldwin St, mid-November
Wet tarmac blinks red and gold,
names shine outside the Gaumont.
Stop dreaming, you’ll get lost.
I trot to keep up, past the chip shop,
past a big man bellowing Mind out!
as he shifts a stack of crates,
past Carwardine’s Cafe, until Mum
stops at a gallery’s bright window.
A landscape on an easel — a wood
with rust and amber foliage, a stream
purling over a bed of white pebbles,
a skein of geese straggling overhead.
Imagine walking off, into that picture,
I hear her mutter to herself.
Sharon Phillips started writing poems when she retired from her career in education. Since then, her work has appeared in many print and online journals and anthologies. Her pamphlet, Liven Yourself Up, was published in 2024. Sharon lives in Otley, West Yorkshire.