Knackered...

NIGHT NOISE.
As if we haven't got enough
commotion round here -
with the helicopter buzzing
the twenty second floor,
the factory alarm going off
every night when someone
breaks in, the fire engines
trundling past and the bang
every time a car gets torched.
Now we've got mounted police
patrols after midnight and they
wake up all the neighbourhood
dogs and when they start
barking everyone wakes up.
And those daft car alarms
don't help. No wonder no-one
pays the Poll Tax, the Water
Rates and the Rent in Salford.
Even if we had a job to go to
we'd all be knackered by first light.
Previously published in Cowardy Custard's Last Stand in Salford 1992