The City's Backside Poem by Roger Hudson

To passengers on the train
The city exposes its dirty backside

Flashing
Its tangle of garbage weeds debris clutter barbed wire
Fencing high walls concrete brick back-lanes alleys

Mooning
The glories of its paintspray graffiti
Garish colours enlivening dull bricks and concrete
Declaring the daring of acrobatic spraycan wielding intruders
Artlessly composed townscapes
Unexpected in their unpretentiousness
Compared to city centre flash

The functional no-pretence side of life
As though we travelling through
Are meant to avert our gaze
At the necessary but embarrassing functions of cityman

A peep into backyards and gardens
Tended or overgrown
Toys and tools abandoned
For school and work
Curtains drawn against regardless eyes
Or open
Shameless at these distant voyeurs
Glancing up their back yards
Staring through their rear windows
An intimacy not available to friends

Or just ignoring their indecent exposure
Heads in newspapers and books
Frowning in deep worries
Or dozing the journey away