Badlands
We wake up on the floor of a council house
in Cumbria, feeling a bit sick. Everywhere
smells of oil and leather. Out on the road
a neat row of Triumphs and Kawasakis.
The daylight is nasty but in the kitchen
there’s coffee. Carol makes anaemic toast
and hands it round. John comes down from the room
he shares with Carol’s eldest girl, who’s thirteen,
scratches his balls and yawns. He moved up here
to get away from civilisation
he says - from Babylon. He’s buried his guns
down the yard. Another mound of biker stirs
and Carol creeps upstairs as John explains
how, strategically, you’re better up a hill,
now we’re close to the end of everything
when only the fittest, best armed will remain
to perpetuate the race. Three smart kids
file in, in Sunday best, a shirt and tie
for the boy and floral dresses for the girls.
They breakfast on cornflakes and orange juice.
Their dad will take them to the Kingdom Hall
at nine. He doesn’t live here anymore.
We joke with them. They smile indulgently.
We know they know that we are going to hell.
Page(s) 33
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