Folk up the hill don't greet

 I escaped an exploding supermarket
running up the hill breathless and effortful
Onto grasshopper avenue
where the old and strange stayed inside

so much needless concrete up there
So much incline and many pained faces
faces reflecting the pavement in them
hardened and dirtied skuffed even

These were the ones who still attended church
as if it were a profession
The same dusty concrete reaching up
holding up that spire

silently callous