Picture 1960 Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

A Picture 1960

In the sepia light, a thin man, dressed in a generous grey suit,
stands reading titles outside a bookshop, in a London street.

A woman, in a long black dress, white blues and flat, sensible shoes,
walks up and taps him on his shoulder.

They briefly kiss walk off I wondered if they were long time married
or discreet English lovers on their lunch break.

I took a picture of them walking down a tired street went
into a Chines, so I knew they were minion on a lunch break.

A pity really they were important people writing in a ledger
they were the middle classes of their days, respectable.

They took years writing data we find in seconds on google
but when the internet fails we have to start history from 1950.