A paean to my hometown. Or to the nearest big city anyway.

Red dawn over the bus stop
Red dawn over the sari shop
Red dawn over the counter
Red dawn over the Sea Life Centre
Red dawn over the red wall
The grey canal, the pool hall
The forlorn stray football
Lost of the last half day of school

Red dawn over The Iron Man
Red dawn over Birmingham

Red dawn over red eyes
The highrise and the lowrise
Red dawn over the mayor
Red dawn over Victoria Square
Red dawn over the token grass
The godforsaken underpass
The scene of scattered broken glass
Splattered with thrown up madras

Red dawn over The Iron Man
Red dawn over Birmingham

Red dawn over the kitchen sink
Over the closed down ice rink
Red dawn over the overflow
Red dawn over New Town Row
Red dawn over the welcome mat
The bedsit and the three room flat
The office without chitchat
Full of high-tech this and that

Red dawn over The Iron Man
Red dawn over Birmingham

Red dawn over the new day
Red dawn over the railway
Red dawn over the bar
Red dawn over Rent A Car
Red dawn over the cul-de-sac
The caravan, the roof rack
The sleeper, the insomniac
The pauper’s grave, the blue plaque

Red dawn over The Iron Man
Red dawn over Birmingham

Red dawn over Five Ways
Red dawn over the next phase
Red dawn over the cash machine
Red dawn over the multi-screen
Red dawn over clubland
The warehouse with the contraband
Red dawn over the bandstand
Red dawn girl holding her own hand

Red dawn over The Iron Man
Red dawn over Birmingham

Red dawn over the torn bill
The lone seagull on the landfill
Picking at the espadrille
Sticking out of the iron grill
Red dawn over the QE
Red dawn over the ICC
Red dawn over the cricket ground
Over the body yet to be found

Red dawn over The Iron Man
Red dawn over Birmingham

Red dawn over Birmingham
And her face came close to his in the half-light
She licked her lips which made his feel anaemic and thin
And the word eviscerated came into his head
Her teeth gleamed through full, slightly parted lips
And the sweet-sour scent of her breath still burned a hole

Red dawn over Birmingham
And her watching it through parted curtains
She saw someone running
A girl like herself with jutting shoulderblades
A girl like herself as she used to be
Running from the red dawn through the red dawn

Red dawn over a frozen river
Four hundred and forty one thousand years ago
Red dawn over a Roman fort
One thousand nine hundred and fifty years ago
Red dawn over Birmingham
One hundred and six years ago
Red dawn over Birmingham
This morning