The shops have changed.

Oh, they’re still there,

but what was a greengrocers

is now a mobile phone store,

the newsagents has morphed

into a takeaway,

and grass we used to play on

is now concreted for parking.

 

Where I rode my bicycle

with such freedom,

the road has shrunk,

with cars parked

nose to tail on both sides.

In my memory,

there were seven cars

on the whole street.

 

I hardly recognise the houses;

they are forty years smaller.