Prison van

When I pulled alongside
I heard the thumping start,
A pounding so loud I thought
It came from my racing heart.

They were out to get me,
These angry thugs whose phelgm
I could feel on my face. I am sure.
So I made monsters out of them.

Thanked my cowardly stars,
That the spick and span white van
Whose stop lights bled into the wet night
Would soon have them behind bars.

But as they sank from view –
Down the slipway into darkness,
I realised it was the sound of boys
Drowning to which I had been witness.

Simon Denegri
September 2019