In the red dot district

Streetwalkers
old hawkers
sweepers
with tears
fast talkers
with fears
to sell.
Paint peeling
dead feeling
windows
cracked
door jambs
hacked
no juice
for the lights
in the red
every night.

T.P. Wilkinson, Dr. rer. pol. writes, teaches History and English, directs theatre and coaches cricket between the cradles of Heine and Saramago. He is author of Unbecoming American: A War Memoir and also Church Clothes, Land, Mission and the End of Apartheid in South Africa. Read other articles by T.P..