Nightmare on High Street

With empty stomach
but bloated head
the child tried hard to sleep
in his cold steel bed

But outside his room
paced and muttered
like a mad baboon
his cracked mother

She spoke to ghosts
in her mind
Slammed doors at demons
no one else could find

Speaking nonsense
thumping her fists
spitting out blasphemies
and wringing her wrists

He closed his ears with the pillow
and tried to keep cool
Tried to conserve energy
to get up for school

But his heart was racing
along with his mum's manic
As he imagined her escaping
into oncoming traffic

In a possessed trance
she'd done it before
So he had to keep listening
in case she unlocked the door

Then he'd have to rush out
and lock it with a yell
Keep her inside
and from going to hell

Deprived summed him up
Depraved summed up her
And none but the two of them
knew where they were

Failing to understand
much less be understood
Those were the pains
of this boy's childhood