pre-spring

pre-spring

This is a mild forenoon, winter coats
are put aside
Some men wear shorts and show hairy white legs
Elderly ladies are walking their lap-dogs
snappy little beast eyeing every passerby
they won the big dog lottery, guard their prize
a human for life.
A road sweeper with his wheelie bin walks by
the pavements are clean this day, but he crosses
the road among the bushes, an empty packet
of crisp, with his gloved hand ( yes
 for heavens
sake,) deposit the empty packed in the bin
He wheels his bin under a balcony and takes his
gloves off and reaches into his plastic bag
a sandwich, and of course, the sarnie wrapping
ends up in the bin.
he picks up his phone and rings his boss the man  in charge of 5 hundred wheelie- bins
and allocate the route they must go every day
tells his boss the street is clean and wants to end
his shift had promised to take his daughter
to a hamburger joint, the boss says ok
he knows the sweeper is divorced and only sees
her once a week, but tells him to take the bin
to the depot.
this little intermezzo on a spring day
 tells us
how soothing a mild day can be.