Bleary Balearic beats
slouch
down silent stairwells
to touch on ears untroubled
by sleep, with doubt
creeping in at five am.

Lives built vertically,
uncertainly,
roots put down through air
to twine with branches rising
from nothing but clouds
and hope thinned by altitude.

From frowzy dens arise
pre-dawn
the undernourished undercurrent,
carrying on their weal-worn backs
the downward stares
of the higher-flawed.

No-one moves on
unable
to untwist the spiral
of stairs and stairwells
everything leading up to
everyone moving down.