Pre-Christmas street market scene -

Fashionable flappers preambulate,

Eager to see and be seen;

Stalls sell hams, roast chickens,

Musky perfumes, tobacco aromas.

Surreal optical quality in the

Low, shafting winter sun

Throwing shadows, creating illusions -

Figures melting/merging, dreamscape.

Uncertain times, postwar boom stalling

Amid stock market collapse, inflation.

Fiery red sunset, ominous atmosphere;

Hopes realised or nightmare ahead?

Future balanced on knife-edge.