Preston tonight

Preston is lit with white teeth and street lamps tonight
Smiling faces and glassy eyes
Staring blank and transparent
Leaving little impression

Holding pint lagers and cigarettes
Lolling in conversation
With numb tongues
Flapping loose statements

Preston’s students
In large groups, drinking and drooling
This is their passion
This is their drive in life

Draw little from social events
Talking to people is mandatory
As far as I am concerned
Either I am being questioned or listening

Police sirens mark the evening air
Red and blue sirens howl wildly
Leaving startled girls with big pupils
Wondering who’s gone wrong

The screaming police car buzzes past and I light up
The smoke dances over Preston’s skyline
Floats high over the black tarmac roads
Through those glassy eyes and smiling teeth

I watch the last white wisp of smoke fade away
Continue down the street in time with my Ipod
Stepping to “waiting on a friend”
Imagining myself on any New York street in Summer

Those New York streets where people are hanging out
Just sitting on steps near red fire hydrants
And children play innocently
And all the while the sun shines

But I wasn’t on any New York street
I was in blank, cold Preston
Blank and transparent
With a blue and grey panelled British Telecom building
The street descends onto a roundabout
And I stand there on the edge watching
And I gaze wildly at the students
Watching them weave and dip from friend to friend