Leith Walk, Saturday Night;
Winter, 1930’s
Trams trundle past
destinations a world away;
a
penny takes you to
Portobello, Liberton,
Corstorphine, Granton;
not many have a penny.
Entertainment is on the street;
a piper outside Dan Cowan’s;
inside men drinking their dole money,
remembering
the ‘War to end all Wars’.
The Kirkgate
thronged with Mothers
shopping for late night bargains;
pigs feet, salt herring, ham ribs,
pies
three
a penny.
Seamen,
buying short-lived friendship
from women in garish make-up,
disappear up ill-lit closes
and
return
in fifteen minutes.
Jack
Cormack
preaches “No Popery”;
nearby a bronze Queen Victoria
pays little heed.
Shop windows start to dim,
drunks wend their way home;
tomorrow,
God’s special day.
Overnight, street cleaners
will make it fit for His presence
William
McMillan Cunningham:
October 23, 2008.
Copyright,
1st May, 2002 |