Up in flames
like the chippy on China Lane
This car park
on a vacant lot
Was once the
site of the burnt out shell
Of the only
shop that didn’t get bombed in the war
Shoulder to
shoulder shoehorned to attention
All ages and colours
and creeds
From
Piccadilly to the Daily Express
With their
photographic memories
Those beautiful
buildings mesmerising me
Drawing us all
- including you - into
The bestest
little city in the world
And how we
miss our china plates
Woolworth's and The Queen's Hotel
NewBrown
Street and Swan Lane
New
And whatever
happened to Tommy Ducks
For forty-five years I’ve wanted to paint you
Map you - photograph
you half to death
Your shop
fronts change - logos come and go
But the beauty
of your facades remain
It’s funny
how so many young thin
Fashionista’s
like such old fashioned things
All those
gold and diamond rings
That they buy
from the pawn shop
Where the sex
shop used to be
Some people
never get sick and old
They tell the
same jokes that they were told
Sell the
brown brogues that they sold
In eighteen-sixty-nine
and the years unfold
Like the Tib
Street Parrot and the price of gold
Fashion is
the passion for all ages
The vintage
clothes stores are the New Oasis
The inking
parlours and the piercing places
For the café cavemen
and The Millstone Elvis
We all fall
down in the middle Yates’s
Glitterista and
her sister are out on the razz
If looks
could kill in mum’s ball gown
Up to the
nines in The Castle and all that jazz
The wholesale
markets are well out of bounds
Advertising
boards now clutter the pavements
The hairdressers and the bargain basements
From Diet Deli to the gutter - screaming
From Diet Deli to the gutter - screaming
All Day Breakfast’s
- Bacon and Sausage Barm’s
Non Stop
Breakfasts’s - Free Coffee Refills
Hot Custard -
Bakewell puddings - Manchester Tarts
But this is an
empty car park on a vacant lot
That was once
the site of the burnt out shell
Of the only
shop that didn’t get bombed in the war
131115
