The Quiet Bit Between Shops

The shadows here are deep enough to hide the cracks, though not quite deep enough to forget them.
Sunlight tries its best to flatter the concrete, but it’s been doing that since 1970 and the concrete’s not getting any younger.

Nobody lingers. This is the bit of town you walk through, not to.
Past the peeling corners, the shuttered fronts, the memory of busier shoes.

But the buildings remember.
They remember when the floors were polished, and the men wore ties, and the women wore gloves.
They remember when the future had just arrived.