A Night On The Town

A Night On The Town

The city was built for poets,
A parade of constant events;
The neon whistles in colour,
And Nelson's earning his rent.

But yet, but yet -
Some miss the social safety net.

Down in the underground:
A woman who wouldn't have worried,
If the escalator had never moved.
While an unknown in a coat of thread,
Shows the world only a mess of hair;
Unchanged from arrival to departure.

Later, outside, a guy topples over.
Broken by the clear-eyed dawn.
Losers don't owe the world a thing;
A clever thought to scribble down,
On a homeward train.

Date mostly written: 1974