Woman in red

Walking round the building site at night is like being in a sound sculpture. Cables whipped by the wind clank against metal poles, the wind sings through the cranes, an earth-removing machine pounds its rhythm.

I peered through the hoardings to a vast hole in the ground. I must have been right about the convoy of ant-lorries that have stymied the traffic and filled the roads with fine dust for the last fortnight. In the hole, workers were welding an enormous cage of steel mesh - the reinforced concrete foundations of the new shopping centre I guess.

I wonder whether 40 years ago someone like me stood and watched the brand new multi-storey car park being put up that I've watched vanish over the last nine months.

I wonder whether 40 years from now there'll be someone standing here watching all this be demolished.

Or will it all be under water as we fail to deal with climate change?