Tunnel vision

Swinging from the complex intersection that is Chalmers, Elizabeth, and Foveaux Streets with Eddy Avenue, I am swamped by the trudging public, disgorging from buses and trains into this gritty end of town, as the precinct reluctantly awakes.

The gut churning aroma of bitter coffee dregs, melds with the stench of recycled saturated fats glugging in less-than-gleaming vats along the rear wall of the Eddy Avenue Express Diner, its neon sign splattered with deceased bogons drawn like the proverbial to the flame. A frosting of pigeon guano cakes the torn awning not unwound in more than a decade.

Pulling last year's grey-coat around my chest, I cast my sight low, and thrust into the first chilly blast of autumn.