Dark comes early, and wet snow.

The citizens hurry from work,

scarfed, buttoned, thinking of supper,

the tram clanking and squealing

in whose glass an arm has wiped

a V of lit space wherein smoke,

old and young wrapped for winter,

eyes focussed somewhere ahead,

dreaming perhaps of a sausage,

of bread, coffee, a warm bed,

a bullet in the back of the brain.

Then they’re gone. Next comes

the future. It looks like the past.