Whitehall
in flood
in springtime,
at a bus stop
a young girl
impatiently
waits in a queue
for help
from the hands
of a handful
of strangers
to lift her
up onto
the bus shelter
roof; atop
of the shelter
afloat
in an ocean,
a boiling tide
that blisters
the street,
she stoops for
a bottle
cast up
by its motion
and plunges
it into
the waves
of police.