The cardboard night

You see, one day when I was a student,

I got fed-up.

I can’t remember what is was that caused me to feel that way –

Likely, something to do with people,

As people

Are my currency.

 

I headed out,

having just finished

On the Road

And hitched a lift to Edinburgh.

 

Barely any money.

The days before cash-machine overdrafts.

 

It was winter,

I know the season as I remember the cold.

 

And buddying-up with sleeping-rough man.

 

In those days, the conversations seemed less about homelessness

And more about

Lifestyle.

 

Edinburgh can be very cold at night,

Particularly if it is damp.

And the wind is blowing.

 

And, now I remember, all I had was the Postman Jacket

I had bought from the second-hand store.

The one that Cliff wore in Cheers

Not the actual one,

But a lookalike.

 

Not the best for winter in Scotland.

 

And cold, so very cold and nowhere to go and nowhere to sleep

And we bedded down on flattened cardboard boxes

In the underpass

 

of the bus station.

 

I was always a bit dramatic.