Meniscus

The stench of stagnant water clings

to the river-wall behind a take-away

and adjoining tattoo parlour whilst

teachers turn their students into

legions of self-eating snakes.

Clouds drool like demented lepers

as things we would rather forget are

super-imposed on alleyway walls

and our success is measured by moving

up from a hatchback to a saloon.

Stray thoughts are counted like coins

as salarymen wager hours for spare change

in a cycle unbroken by the ages,

like watching sex offenders perving

over pictures of themselves as kids.