Brick the colour of wet cardboard

The block behind the station is the colour of a box that has been left in the yard. Not ugly. Just uninterested in being liked. The windows are a little too small. The entrance has a buzzer panel with names that have been peeled off and written back in biro.

I like it because it doesn't perform. New builds nearby have been told to have a materiality. This one has brick and a damp stain under the third-floor sill.

Walking past

If I take the long way home I go behind the station on purpose. The stain has grown since March. I don't find that sad. Buildings record weather the way people record nothing.