[Above: Autumn in Winchester – Stock]

 

The Litterman

 

Town-ward, on busy Romsey Road

Pavements brown and ochre leaf-adorned

Just like clockwork………along he comes

Supermarket carrier-bags to the fore

 

Must cleanse, protect, perfect the surface

The surface of the remains of his mind

Whilst a lifetime psychological condition

Robs his social dignity, blind

 

Park-and-Riders peer through dirty glass

Amused at the early morning Vaudeville

Innuendo-laden comments pass

On this spectre laid-bare for their private thrill

 

It’s an important job, to perform to perfection

A task so immense, as he remains intense

Street flotsam and jetsam evade collection

So many leaves offering leeward resistance

 

Yet-more work for the bag-meister

As late-autumnal trees still spawn

More biological deadweight anti-matter

Whilst another West-Downs winter dawns

 

Bus tickets and fag-ends get caught up

Untidy Dolphins in a Tuna net

As Superman might say: “I’m just doing my job”

Collateral damage, in the great leaf-collect.

 

Copyright, Jody Redmires, 2015