The local council pulled some old terraced houses down,
empty space where children played amongst debris and weed,
finding treasures we are to stale to imagine,
wheels of a pram, a bike’s handlebar, bent nails
and stones with seams of silver.
Then a bloke came along
cleared and asphalted the place,
put up a fence and made a parking lot.
Children play in a busy street
dodging cars being sworn at
by irate drivers and shouted at by worried mothers,
living in a location
where they are seen as a nuisance.