Windsor's Local

A rather unstructured Observational Poem.

Windsor’s Local

There this man I’ve known for years,

I can’t remember his name but I know him,

I know every gritty wrinkle on his bearded face.

Sometimes I leave some fags,

Others I give smile, and I always get one back,

I’ve seen him muttering through cold dreams,

curled against the doorstep of a long abandoned bank,

wrapped in a blanket that’s more holes than wool,

Tightly gripping his most favored possession.

A cheap bottle of whiskey from the off licence –

The label picked and pealed,

Something he does to keep his unclean hands warm,

Something to keep his mind from wandering too far.

I’ve seen him wake in the morning, to the same stone floor,

Wearing the same battered coat and toothless smile.

Chortling a joke as I pass -

The same joke that he’s been telling for years,

followed by the same wheezy and smoke infused laugh that has echoed off the doorway,

For more years then my mother can remember.

He’s always laughing –

Even when it snowed so hard his fingers turned blue -

He only has seven now –

And even when some brute had battered him for everything he owned

(£5.70 and an old ring he’d worn on his left hand)

Only once I saw seen him sad -

He used to have this dog, a beautiful black dog,

With a sleek shimmering coat and

Eyes so soft and gentle there was no way they could ever be human.

His name was something like Borris or Bruce,

Something manly if I remember.

One day the man been lucky –

Had managed to score more whiskey than usual,

He slept for the whole day in warm bliss,

Only to wake up and find that Borris/Bruce had

Seen a cat near the off licence and dashed across the road,

He never did get to the other side –

I had never seen a man look so alone,

As the day that dog died.

Though the next day though he was up, smiling and laughing again,

His water sodden shoes kicked off in the May sun,

Telling this to anyone who would listen;

‘God said unto John, John! Come forth and thou shall achieve eternal life,

But John came fifth and won a toaster.’

Chelsie Glover