Summer is fading:
The leaves fall in ones and twos
From trees bordering
The new recreation ground.
In the hollows of afternoons
Young mothers assemble
At swing and sandpit
Setting free their children.
Behind them, at intervals,
Stand husbands in skilled trades,
An estateful of washing,
And the albums, lettered
“Behind” suggests that the husbands are there for support and comfort but the use of the word “intervals” hints at the idea that the husbands were often absent at work.  The mothers are left on their own to look after themselves and their children. Their respective lives have become distant from each other. 
 Note that “Behind them” is echoed in the penultimate line of the poem as “Before them”.  The significance of this comes clear later in the stanza.
Afternoons