Soul

Walked into London today
Thinking about ‘soul’
Music or religion
Religion, religion and religion
Joined at the base, so to speak

Turned into Chancery Lane
Little old lady exiting sprightly backwards
From a friendly fresh sandwich shop
She was laughing
Really laughing
There was soul there

Lincolns Inn Fields tennis courts
Were deserted
There were yellow vested men
Sitting sipping their drinks
A fearful grey lady
A blue suited man
But soul there

Deliciously expensive patisserie
Elderly leathered motorbike rider
Well displayed bookshop
Empty public toilet – in this day and age
Male and Female ends
Red quarry tiles
An exiting parking attendant, large, black
Grateful to pee, in peace with the world

Thirty years ago a nice sunny day
An old colleague invited me
To see his collection of First Editions
So I did
And they were
Shelved in a large basement
Air-conditioned
A little on the chilly side for reading
His wife produced
Spaghetti with a meat and tomato sauce
Followed by Compton Street coffee
All carefully filtered
Lovely apart from the basement of books
Which had their souls sucked out

Like Wapping High Street
Where the soul has gone
For now