KNIFE BOY BUSTED

when i was a kid
i knew this kid
lived over the other side of the park
beyond the fire path 
and the cycle barriers
and
all
the
big flea dart bushes

he always had a knife with him
pen knife
but a big one
he had a mouth full of bullshit
and
we called him a perv 
before we knew what one was
there
was 
sickness 
in his eyes

he knocked on my door one night
the time was inappropriate 
he was turned away
he stayed out there in the half-light
sawing
at the 
conifers 
with his knife
i
watched from my window
peeping from behind the net curtain
and
he
disappeared after that

years later we're both soul-sucked
dying of retail
working in the mall
trying to remember our dreams
and
one saturday theres a bomb threat
the whole place opens late
car parks full
police horses crapping in the bus station
and
queues of hungry shoppers 
at the big glass doors

he'd rung his hoax into Special Branch
he was after an easy weekend
with his perversions 
and 
knives

he used his home phone
he was easily busted
and had to write an apology 
to every retail unit in the mall
to 
be 
pinned to Nobo boards
in the staffrooms

the IRA had been knocking about in Canary Wharf
with a Transit full of explosives
and
there'd been that Pub in Covent Garden too 
blown to bits one summer afternoon

so
that
was 
the 
least of what he had to do

from squirrelbasket.wordpress