I Went Back To My Hometown

I went back to my hometown

Walked the sombre shrunken streets

Where concrete lampposts stand in line

Immune to trend and time and tide

And groaning buses carried me

To other planets far and wide

And that familiar corner

I turned alone on t-barred shoes

Which trampled forth despite my fears

Of vagrant dogs and men with sweets

Who carried children off the streets

I saw the string of hollow shops

Where once we went for everything

Now moribund and full of shame

To rot and never sing again

I saw native eyes in furrowed skin

Whose class was it that we were in?

We shone like stars

We swam in dreams

And boarded life with them on ice

Another world to me it seems

All melted now to might have beens

So many cold rectangular homes

Where people sit in dressing gowns

They warm their hands on mildewed hounds

And wait for their ship to come in

But dreams lay in the doldrums here

And good times flow on tides of beer

And am I happier than them?

We've all of us grown tired and aged

I doubt it, no, when said and done

I just live in a different cage