Rags

Her grey eyes searched his clouded face
Where to now?
They seemed to ask
He had no answer but an empty bag
Slung over his shoulder like a limp rebuke
Through her threadbare veil of strength
She smiled, even as the coarse, interleaving
Mud-coloured weave
Abraded her bare shoulder
So much the less for a barren day
Litterless, unblemished as a baby's cheek
They stepped back as man and machine whiz past her
Cursing their existence that mars a perfect world
They looked around in despair, they peered through
The swarm of vehicles, wondering if perhaps
It is isn't all lawn on the other side too
His eyes mist over as a he grapples with the thought
That there this city had closed its doors on them
Unforgiving and Pristine, had terminated their services
He took her gnarled hand in his, brushed a grey hair
from her withered face, a toothless smile among the wrinkles
They stepped into the melee, looking out
From the sea of metal, over to a promised land
Perhaps it would not be greener there
Perhaps the odd shopkeeper, the odd pedestrian
Would forget to be good citizens
Every can tossed brought new hope
Perhaps their bags need be empty no more.