I see the pavement and each well cracked stone

I know the privet hedge now soft with rain

I plucked a leaf I sipped its moisture green

I saw the window with its one cracked pane

the ginger cat once sat outside the door.

He sucked the eggs laid by our neighbour’s hens

He ate the budgie while we were at school

My mother never fed him, bought no tins.

No children play upon this once bright Street

No marbles roll the gutters, no boys play.

Skipping ropes abandoned, slowly rot

The past has left few Shadows for today.

In my mind I see the ancient scene

Children sing the rhymes, the coltsfoot gleams