Love Letter to Hyde Park

In the Thai café, with its oily light,

Its odours whose colourful shapes vaporise behind buildings.

An orange glow casts a haze out into the night,

Spices and fumes dissipate into red bricked alleyways.

Inside, people babble, without care,

Whilst steam condenses upon the windows.

All the while, yellow lanterns softly glare,

Above the metallic tabletops, where fingerprints linger.

Outside, twenty something’s swoon.

An uber lingers, whilst people mingle,

Amongst the beams of the spying moon.

Whilst the smell of incense dances with fumes.

Above, lovers confess as curtains are drawn and candles lit,

Whilst the 56 bus rattles through the streets.

Strangers weave between bins, and empty bottles sit,

Alongside the lonely street lights arranged in line.

On the pavement, people discard their litter,

Sending shards of glass flying with the tips of their shoes.

All sprinkled - as if it were glitter.

Glistening, like a spider’s graffitied web.

A rat scurries by with a scaly tail,

Racing your shadow that follows you home.

A slug and a snail, leave a silver trail,

That glints and glows in the dark.

---

Words: Daisy Hayward

Image credit: Daisy Hayward