Carole Satyamurti
Community Care
‘I haven’t seen you, love’. She means it kindly,
the night cleaner on the tube, knowing
it’s cold enough to freeze your bollocks off.
It’s not the Hilton, but it isn’t snowing
down here. And there’s the mice for company.
I haven’t seen you. No one ever did -
mother a druggie, seven foster carers;
they tried, but found him unapproachable.
Always kicked out for ‘challenging behaviour’.
Homeless now, and still only a kid.
What the mice suggested to him then,
what sooty invitation, who can say?
Perhaps he felt he wasn’t really there.
Commuters were told, ‘incident .... delay’.
They grumbled, but most got to work by ten.
No name on him. Five quid, and a spent
cigarette lighter. Spent was how he looked.
The cleaner lost her job. No one claimed him.
Eventually, a funeral was booked
at Hendon Crem. Only the cleaner went.
Page(s) 58
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