POETRY CORNER

Today’s stirring poem is by 69-year-old Tony Hines in Eastbourne, East Sussex. He says: “I’m from Liverpool but have lived in Eastbourne for 45 years.

“I’m now retired from my job as head of decontamination for the NHS, and like to write poetry. I was astonished to discover there were 170,000 people homeless in London alone, so I wrote this poem to remind us to think of them as the temperatures begin to drop this winter.”

A CAPITAL NIGHT’S SLEEP By Tony Hines

The bright lights of London are shining tonight, the colourful neon hides many a plight, for down in the doorway asleep in a box, a man in his 30s without any socks.

His matted grey hair protrudes from the end, where his bed is marked Fragile Please Do Not Bend.

A river of urine flows down the wall, where nature’s just answered a clubgoer’s call.

The sores on his face are open and deep, ensuring another long night without sleep. With buggies on Mars and CCTV, this is surely not how Britain should be.

So when you’re snugly tucked up in your bed, with a feather-filled pillow under your head.

Don’t think of the neon when setting your clocks, spare a thought for the man in the old cardboard box.