Wooden Slide
Fenced field, wooden slide,
youngsters scrabble to
the platform. History says I pushed
my sister off the launch-pad,
propelled her movie-trundling
down to earth with a crack.
She’s crying, points at me,
grown-ups are furious,
they pinch, poke, lacerate
with venom. I’m hurtful,
cruel, unimaginably rough,
the sort of boy who wants to
ride the world.
And I can’t remember pushing her!
Was she sneaking an extra go,
or did she fall to take revenge on me,
or did I just hate and hit in one reaction
to my pestilential sister?
I saw her walk away,
sling-scarf, tears and consolation.
I was a felon, a sister-batterer,
beyond the remit of society
and she, had a broken collar-bone.
Page(s) 55
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