Curfew in the Square

Shop assistants shrug their shoulders
Markets all but closed
Desperate civic center workers
Demand a nicer sandwich and
Children's clothes
Fluorescents flicker into life
Shelves empty in the hours before the dawn
And then there'll be chaos in the frozen aisles
In checkered youth
Packets keep your engines warm
Once you're home
And you can bounce yourselves away
Ever observant early birds
Tripping on curbs
Curfew in the square