Pete Bradley
I often see him here and there,
Think back to when, worried he’d wait at home time,
I’d alter assembly’s Lord’s Prayer
So it delivered me from him.
What I’d seen done to others
Ran through my head all day: rabbit punched; tripped,
Doc Martens landing on fingers;
Nose burst, teeth chipped.
Chicken-pox saved my neck -
Some other first year had taken his fancy
By the time I was back.
Mum daubed calamine all over me,
A warrior’s woad, I’d pretend,
Standing at the window, on guard.
A huge pair festered on the back of my hand.
You can still see the scars -
Craters, the eyes
Of the man in the moon.
One is so faint these days
It seems they’re winking,
Suggesting I should lighten up, forget this stuff,
We were kids, that’s all.
But I remember my dad’s hunting knife,
The day I slipped it into my satchel.
Page(s) 52
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