Knife Crime

I didn't hear the helicopter in the night

my wife did

and she heard voices

I was late coming downstairs

in my speckled maroon pyjamas

from an M & S outlet                           

still too big

even though the hormones

have made me put on a stone

she was stirring her porridge

I let the dogs out into the garden

they didn't come back                       

they must have got out

I checked the front gate                 

it was open

the police left it open

at 1.30 in the morning

looking for someone or a knife

I was like a villain

trying to run after the dogs in my speckled maroon pyjamas

cradling my heart

hoping not to die

before I found them

crossing the road at the traffic lights

.

Reviews

[Eilis]

I like the way this turns the world on its head, so to speak. At least that’s how it feels in the reading. It’s cinematic, almost like a movie preview where the larger details are held back but this tension is created through the details given.

I suppose it’s like anything. When first discovered it is new to our minds so we explore it with our emotional center. Whether through anger or vulnerability or sadness. For me the sense of vulnerability is strong here. From the pajamas to the uncertainty of the dogs’ whereabouts to the running down the street to catch them to the actual inciting incident of a crime in the back garden that has infringed on the sense of security.

It demonstrates how quickly our sense of equilibrium can be upset and even our understanding of our own world. Every moment seems like a scale. Rarely balanced but with time and days shifting sides between security and insecurity according to experience. Some days weigh heavier. Like this poem demonstrates.

And there we stand in the street exposed in ways we wouldn’t have imagined the night before. Strong work, Gerald. Really gets to the heart of an uncomfortable aspect of human experience. Sorry to read this is true to life.

[Gerald Parker]

Again, Eilis, your eloquent and expansively penned response to my poem elevates it to a level I didn't think it merited, as I dashed it off, in note form almost, to preserve, as it were, the memory of the incident before it faded. I think anyone who saw my wife and running down the road in our pajamas probably thought we were dementia cases on an adventure.

[John the Baptist]

Has the sound of a real life occurrence. Had a comedic tone until the last two verses. Hope the dogs came through it all right. You too.

[Gerald Parker]

It was real. It happened yesterday. We are all OK. Thanks, John.