Vanishing

By David Stedman

Location: 31 Landcross Road, Fallowfield

Midsummer, 9am,
bristled bees argue
with window glass,
seeking escape,
the first heat of day.

The radio talks on,
too loud, exhaling
the feel-good,
vapid words feathering
across a continuum of
dyed hair, cigarette ends,
dog barks, tabloid screeds,

grass-cool alleyways.
Buried in the back streets,
history matures in
rubber-mouthed jars, dusted,
derelict, boiling with ants,
mouldering flowers,

and down this path you disappear,
seeking to feel without
the complication of thought.

David Stedman studied English language and literature at the University of Manchester and enjoys every return visit to the city