On that bright summer’s day.
The city’s arteries cleared
Of past congestion.
We travelled on
And the sun shone.
All around reflected
The optimism
Of the summer sun.
Buildings shone brighter,
Cleaner
Than decades before.
Billboards told
Of how the old
Is making way for the new.
Clowns blew bubbles of hope
Outside the stores.
Mothers smiled.
Their children on scooters
Following,
Laughing.
For them the promise
Of a future of summers.
We saw them clamour at the gates
To see some majesty
Or leader of their democracy
Who might step into the brightness of the day.
Then we saw them,
In the cold shade
Of a neglected doorway.
Shivering
In tattered blankets
He tried to fight his fever,
While his lover gently caressed him.
The sun seemed to have missed that doorway.
Sharon Heaney Stansfield