CITY HEAT

CITY HEAT

Bring me the breeze of a warm summer day
To shuffle the air that lingers to stay
Waft the cool droplets of fountain water
On a traveller hot from the city’s warm slaughter
Let me see children who learn as they play
Hopscotch on paving or five stones belay
Amid the street cleansers with litter pick claws
On the Square of Victoria there are no closed doors

A Library stands ready to inform and inspire
Art galleries offering to quench knowledge’s desire
On a backdrop most Doric that is the Town Hall
The Proles taking lunch on the steps where they fall
In a vast sea of voices that speak with one tongue
A Cosmopolitan jigsaw where all can belong
On the outset of Ramadan the Muslim at fast
Respected by everyone, no matter the caste

Parties of visitors follow on in a snake
A tour not so guided but a thirst left to slake
Through flowers in tubs of columbine and pink
They wander in awe with no visible link
The Town Clock is striking to the toll of midday
On the deaf ears of statues on plinths here today
Lobelian gorse in purple and yellow
Window boxed to the library, stark but yet mellow

So send forth the zephyr to cut back this hot day
On the sidewalk of tolerance where peace has its way
I count the proud nations as they pass my seat here
Not one will show sword nor brandish a spear
Taught by their children on a hot summer day
They do not see race but a friend who will play
In a Square of a city where the heat haze beats down
Forensically melding the voice of one town

JP.