Jeltje Fanoy #58 The Milk Bar

After work, exhausted,
just before closing time,
milk for a cuppa tea,
tomato soup, last couple
of rolls, a can of beans


we saw him grow taller,
the smiling toddler
starting to count out
lollies for the kids
pouring in
from the school
across the road,
no fortune
to be made, here,
5 lollies, for 10 cents


towards the end,
angry young men in
heated up cars,
they'd drive across
from the outer
suburbs, smash his
front windows in the
middle of the night,
his mum became scared


but, before those times,
the coming and going
of neighbours, he knew
them all by sight, some
stayed and lingered
in his shop, discussed
the news from the papers


these days, a man and
his dog walk a lot, a bit
like clock-work, past
our front doors, he's
a daily reminder
of what has been lost,
he knows who's parked
when and where,
will start to worry when
you forget to lock your car,
we want him to be happier