Exchange Square

By Nick Hancill

Location: Exchange Square, Manchester

Three a.m., the far corner; she fumbles around
while the taxi’s engine hacks and coughs:
A standstill beneath the Co-operative Bank.
Her fingers hunt the deer-hide purse
and part the supple skin at the fold.

A slurred explanation mumbled to her chest
and she’s out of the cab that sits on the curb,
tilted to one side and eyes glazed over.
A man asleep against the hole-in-the-wall,
his hand still open, palm to the clouds.

She prods in her pin, drops her make-up,
the man’s eyes open, off-white as his paper cup.
But he’s used to this kind and disturbance.
The heels drown him out as they clatter home,
he sees the cab driver mouth his thoughts.
‘Sorry love, all I’ve got is change.’

Nick Hancill is a young poet, based in Manchester but originally from the North East. He’s currently studying creative writing on the University of Manchester’s MA programme.