Waiting in the doorway, the pistol concealed up a tattered sleeve, habitually wiping your nose with a soiled hand. But I smell you, I smell you all the way down the hall. Your stink lies thick on this tattered carpet, the sound of your crime echoing out before you… I creep up on your blind left and slide a blade into your shivering ribs.
It wasn’t always this way. We grew up on the same streets, and those early days were all sunshine and tricycles, ice-cream and grass stains, lawn-sprayers and distant prayers. The soundtrack to innocence, and the colours of sleep.
But it all turned sour when the factory closed. Darkness engulfed everything, and our parents’ struggles bled into our childhood. Through my loft window, I watched your older sister suck filth for moonshine, and your father take a pan your mother. The police lights hurt my eyes, and the sirens remained long after the ambulance had gone.
And life ground us all to gravel. School spat us out none the wiser, and we blew out into the surrounding towns like autumn leaves. Some found themselves in the cities, I found myself in jail and fighting for my life.
I was kicked out into a more brutal world than the one I’d left. In the alleys, under broken roofs, I met you again. The circle now somehow complete, through your damage, I waited for you to remember the terms on which we parted.
And one night you did. Sucking on stolen beer, I heard the sound of falling coins. Made my excuses to a steel gaze, and knew the next time would be our last.
It wasn’t always this way. We grew up on the same streets, and those early days were all sunshine and tricycles, ice-cream and grass stains, lawn-sprayers and distant prayers. The soundtrack to innocence, and the colours of sleep.
But it all turned sour when the factory closed. Darkness engulfed everything, and our parents’ struggles bled into our childhood. Through my loft window, I watched your older sister suck filth for moonshine, and your father take a pan your mother. The police lights hurt my eyes, and the sirens remained long after the ambulance had gone.
And life ground us all to gravel. School spat us out none the wiser, and we blew out into the surrounding towns like autumn leaves. Some found themselves in the cities, I found myself in jail and fighting for my life.
I was kicked out into a more brutal world than the one I’d left. In the alleys, under broken roofs, I met you again. The circle now somehow complete, through your damage, I waited for you to remember the terms on which we parted.
And one night you did. Sucking on stolen beer, I heard the sound of falling coins. Made my excuses to a steel gaze, and knew the next time would be our last.