elegy for a death in southwark

You post-club morning drunken staggers
Bouncers sober looking-daggers;
Or tired.
You girls in chorus¡¯s of night
You boys in cheap displays of might;
Are mired.

Outside the Elephant and Castle
Another over-dressed young rascal
Raises Cain.
I¡¯ve broken up fights here before
In savage summer swift downpour
of rain.

Down Walworth road under the bridges
Cameras fishing from the ridges
It¡¯s fate.
Seen only here in linear function
By the time they hit the junction
It¡¯s late

A yellow board has gone up calling
For incident reports by morning
¡®shots fired¡¯.
At 5am another statistic
White or Black young male: simplistic
Expired.

Strangely though the city echoes
With attempts to break the ghetto¡¯s
Of mind.
And friendship given or reciprocated
In Walworth - just as well attempt to place it:
Takes time.