three men in a car

Three Men in a Car.

Ship less docks, empty warehouses and Liverpool
was collapsing into itself; 1980 the nadir, and
hadn’t the Liver Bird been hold down by wires
she would have flown away.

I walked along the docks the winter air was full
of melancholy, an epoch had ended it waited for
renewal, there was talk of converting warehouses
into smart apartments for the bright eyed set.

Three police detective sat in a car trying to look
like civilians, stupid when does three blokes have
time to sit in a car in the middle of the day, unless
they are thieves or police.

I was just standing there looking into the water
tried to recall Marilyn’s face, zilch, and a seabird
floated in the filthy water, the officers were out of
the car, stood there looking at the lead grey sky.

Too cold and the water wasn’t clean, I looked up
and saw the Liver Bird she could do with a perm,
but there wasn’t anything cowed about her; and
what do I know? Maybe the three men were poets?