Flash past

Californian sunshine
Bathed Kilmarnock one day
Momentarily really
Dusty dry street, broken glass glistening at the kerb
Struck by the wheels
Of the first skateboard my eyes set upon
It clunkered and thunked
Making an alien rhythm
Flashed past
A thing of US import
Really in Kilmarnock?
Could I ever?
Seen on TV only
Now on my granny’s street

I was not that boy
That flashed past
No early adopter
Could I ever?
See on TV only
Wouldn’t really actually
Have a go
Could I ever?
Watched it, flash by
Never thinking
That I could ever.

So much flashes past
Signals to other lives that
Needn’t bounce off and be repelled
It seems ‘Roger that’
Would be better.
Sometimes
To say ‘received’
Instead of mute watching
And later wishing.