Between Lauriston Gardens and Lauriston Park by Aiko Harman: No. 17 of this collection's Top 100

Title: Between Lauriston Gardens and Lauriston Park
Author: Aiko Harman
Number: 17/100
Allocated postcode: EH3

Between Lauriston Gardens and Lauriston Park

Facing the pawn shop,
in front of the condemned church,
three boys in Heriot uniforms
throw christened snowballs
at passing city buses.

The owner of the corner car repair
smokes cigarettes in chains,
eyeing up each passer-by
for potential patronage.

The Chinese market is closed
for Chinese New Year. Apologies.
Services will resume tomorrow.

A bag of shopping moulders
on the pavement beside a hotel:
carrots, lettuce, spilled milk.

From a third floor tenement window,
a frazzled woman screams, ‘Shut up!
Shut up! Shut up!’ as below,
a grown man and woman chant:
‘Ya slag. Ya midden. Ya whore.’