Today I had the Beatles music

Playing on my mind

Like the paperback writer I want to be

I got a ticket to ride

To Leeds' City Centre which

The bus's path dictates

Then greeted on arrival by

A million pet hates

The smell and over crowding

Every noisy bustling lane

Removed much of my enjoyment from

The people watching game

Parents smacking children's bums

For doing childish things

Knocking out their youthful innocence

Shocked by the tears it brings

Big issue vendor without a home

But a constant smile on his face instead

Viewed by many as scum who looked

At him as though they wished him dead

Hooded youth goes striding by

Some place he needs to be

He glances up from mobile phone

And nods his head to me

Some time has passed this timeless state

For which I have no care

Dinner time mass of pretension surrounds

I crave to be elsewhere

Toward the stop to catch a bus

For journey homeward bound

But now my head is throbbing from

This heavy wall of sound

.

Copyright © 2007 Matthew P. Nicholson