Tuesday 14th August

WHEN THE CIRCUS LEFT TOWN:

When the circus left town the summer went with it. Even the trains
stopped working & it started to rain. Two boys riding escalators up
from the tube slagged it off, dissecting it with bitter cider breathes.
I miss the circus visitors, their optimism was infectious. Even hard
bitten travellers smiled in bursts of  jovial conversation. People helped
one another, opened up & made connections. This was a beautiful place
to be when the circus was in town. Now fathers smoke alone in back
yards again & deals are done in alleys. The light’s changed the night
draws in as we ride broken train lines to anywhere that’ll get us home.
Commuters shake their heads in disbelief, eyes stare into the distance,
as if the light that was in every one of them left town with the circus.

(K)