Three blocks west

Crossing Stevenson
he penetrates an unfamiliar neighbourhood
passes along backstreets

Scuffling his feet
through discarded maple blossoms
like limegreen spiders
scuttling over gravel

Sorry stacked duplexes
hide a crumbling secret
apartments behind grey walls
crooked stairwells climbing and ascending

Behind a rusted corrugated shed
a nubile magnolia bends

Suddenly among the lines of fences
he spies an alley
like a narrow cobbled street
bounded by unexpected gardens

Strangers raise their heads
from minute terrestrial diversions
collecting fallen twigs off lush grass

Eyes meet
vivifying evening's glow.