Street Woes
On a busy street
in the centre of Seville
a fairytale crone,
clad in black
from head to toe,
leaning on a walking frame,
holds out her hand.
Like the melting
Witch of the West
in the Wizard of Oz,
and just as tiny,
she’s lost her magic.
Shoppers pass by
as if she’s not there.
On another street
a homeless man
sits hunched in shadow
by the church
of Omnium Sanctorum,
a gargoyle fallen
from his perch
on the cornice.
The boxer dog,
asleep beside him,
seems just as spent,
and rather thin,
a toothless threat.
The man’s eyes are dead,
looking straight ahead
but seeing nothing.
In the alley called
Loves’ Passageway,
which meets the street
named Bitterness—
what sardonic medieval
wit named these streets? —
another man sleeps
on a foam rubber bed
under a filthy blanket
inside a cardboard box.
Passers-by give him
a wide berth.
©2022 Tony Dawson All rights reserved.
Tony Dawson has lived in Seville since 1989 having had a career in higher education both in the UK and Spain. Some published poems in English include Lithuanian Cat’s Cradle in Critical Survey, Embers by Shoestring Press, Chance Encounter at the londongrip.co.uk, Attempted Suicide at The Five-Two, Pandemonium, The Dead of Nightand Maradona Meets His Maker in the Syndic Literary Journal. Bitte Experience (prose) appeared in the summer 2021 issue of Chiron Review. Sex Drive and App for Ancient Swingers are due to be published in the November 2021 edition of Home Planet News.