Street traders. Photo David Secombe, text Susan Grindley. (3/3)

Bobby Redrupp and customer, Chapel Market, 1990. © David Secombe.

Leakage in Chapel Market, N1

She’s hanging on. I go to lunch.
An old man with a dewdrop on his nose
shuffles towards the market, inching round
a rotting mango and the discarded cartons
propped against the shop that takes my eye
with its display of candyfloss-pink chairs.
A boy reads from a placard to his friend
that Superman has lost his fight for life.
It’s only the cold wind that fills my eyes
and cyclamen in a new shade of purple.

© Susan Grindley.