In a beat-up shed
in a car-wrecker’s yard
a soldier’s cleaning mud off his boots
with the end of a twig.
Another’s carving a cigarette holder
and a miniature water-wheel for a stream
whose flow has been turned by the rain.
A third’s drawing mosques and naked women
on the wall with a charred stick.
Lads absorbed in serious work
in a car-wrecker’s yard,
and outside it’s sunny –
the season of maggoty cherries.