Civilised

It has been said

The peak of civilisation

Has been reached

When the society

Has a thriving artistic system

But is that society

Civilised

When you walk outside

The palaces of creation

And see men and women

Who cannot afford to eat

Or shelter their

Weary bodies?

The High Street

from here

A thoroughfare of cars, pedestrians, and cyclists

And shops
The same stores repeated block by block
Where people pay the equivalent of a month's rent for a pair of shoes
And other people
Sit on the ground 
Outside the glass and concrete
And beg for something to eat, or a cigarette, or change.