CHICKEN

evil in that house

the night’s hollowness

wallpaper flaking from

damp on the walls

echoes of coughing neon dogs

mumble of drunks

shuffling home through the cold

shapes coiling in bedroom shadows

things scuttling shapelessly in draughts

something heavy in that house wanted out

something heavier again held it in

his childish whining in the witching hour

way past closing time at Nana’s front door

across the room my asthmatic cousin

wept for shame, would not let him in

would not give the held hand

the mercy mouth

an ear for old harm

a quick burning fuck

he rapped and roared

but turned again the way he came

a flightless bird

hung a tree from his head in the park

three days swing in a pendulum’s arc

the sense it makes to take revenge like that

to go and lock the whole damn world out