King Street

Towers of glass are
monuments
to society with national names
banks and other products

ten or twelve floors
below garbage piled higher
than an ice cream cone
laying on the
sidewalk and Tim Horton cups

leapfrog over Subway
wraps and cigarette butts that
no one seems to notice.

Stores closed shoppers at
home watching TV
or snacking except for late
night soldiers. Nothing in their
pockets but lint shoe
leather worn thin

bleak voices asking any
leftover passersby --
Change for a coffee, mister?

© Richard L. Provencher