poem: walking to university

i walk the same route
i take every time i walk to uni
through the hospital car park
and back behind the mental hospital
up the road with all the trees
and through the back gate into campus.

there's a black man
talking to himself
while looking over a piece of paper.
a scroll of papers in his other hand.
(is he an actor practising lines?)

a street name reads "san remo"
like it is situated
in sunny LA
or some other american fantasy land
and not cold drab ormskirk.

as i walk past the law building
a group of girls chatter past
and i wonder
if the birds flying overhead
listen to the chirping of humans
to remind themselves they're alive.

then i reach my destination.