Thumbs
Bumming it, sleepwalking almost, down the hard shoulder,
Army Surplus parka on the droop of him,
this wan boy thinly dreadlocked
on the Penzance bypass, miles
from any lay-by, roundabout or turn,
stumps, fit to drop, one thumb hooked out at half mast,
hopeless, and the other in his mouth.
He’s past caring who sees it: shoppers out early
to Asda, late milk lorries, rattling delivery vans,
unseasonal tourists blown home by the spitting rain,
or kids in tight surf buggy huddles, his age
but they won’t stop, they won’t be touched
by whatever has touched him. Take me home,
the plugged-in thumb says, morning after
too much, too much, while the other drags him on.
Pull it out, he’d go down with a sigh;
there’d be crumpled fatigues, nothing in them at all.
Page(s) 30
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