Keeping beneath the streetlights she strides
hugging herself within a warm winter coat,
checking alleyways and shadows,
shaking, nervous fear tickling the back of her throat.

There she goes -

past broken beer bottles and empty cans
drunken pedophiles rubbing together twitchy hands,

past doorways where scumbag teenagers lie
sharing needles, and half pills just to get high -

ahead of her frantic police sirens wail,
followed by the sickening glow of blue flashing lights,
heading off to another seedy club;
a minefield of fury and bloodied, brawling fist-fights.

There she goes -

past the policeman ignoring the crowd's cries
as his suspect chokes and dies

past the little girl running and crying
saying that Daddy got angry and Mummy's now dying -

Oh there she goes, now indignant and ignorant,
a soul as transparent as the night's sky,

one monument to our sins

from a world now long gone by...