HIDING PLACE 1978

A YOUNG MAN IN WORKING AS A HANDYMAN IN A NURSING HOME IN 1978

I hid in the work shed
when I heard the male matron
calling my name
(the big twat)

I had a class jar
filled with earth
and  black ants
and watched them
make tunnels
and kill any who
were odd ones
or stragglers

and he called out my name
Benedict where are you?

I kept silence
stifling the urge to laugh
until he'd gone

then I sneaked out
and went a different way
and after an hour or so
he'd say
where have you been
I've been looking for you
everywhere?

and I said
o I was in such
and such a place

and he raised his
bushy eyebrows
like waking up
sleeping caterpillars
and said
but I looked there

and I said
o must have just
left then

and once
in the staff room
having morning
or afternoon tea
I'd have a copy
of Ezra Pound's Pisan Cantos
open and read
to myself

while others
(women) chatted
about this and that
like o that Mrs Biggins
she went a wet my shoes
or that Mr Gubbin
went and touched
my backside
as I went past

and I thought
how hard up does one
have to be
to do that
I mean her backside
of all backsides

although Mrs Bee
had a nice one
I guessed
imagining waking up
to it most mornings
like her husband
must have done

and Win said
where have you
been hiding out
that twat's been
looking for you?

has he?
I said
well there's a thing

then I put away
the Ezra book
as the bell
(on the wall)
began to ring.