Neighbours

By Ewan

Fri, 20 Mar 2009
  • 2125 reads
6 comments
 

Was there one living on your street?
With a push for a car, a child-friendly sweet?
A fatherly Fred or motherly Rose;
selling teenagers' second-hand clothes.
A Nielsen, a Nilson in your tower-block,
or Jolly Josef you met in Bangkok?
Do you tell yourself you always knew?
You just weren't sure what you should do?
Behind the lace, behind the chintz,
the things that happen make Masoch wince:
or out on the moors, in the country wild,
there's a loon and his blonde with another child.
Evil makes a homely pretence
and calmly murders innocence.

Certificate U
Poem
Miscellaneous

Comments

Submitted by lenchenelf on
'Evil makes a homely pretence and calmly murders innocence'. Grim subject(s) extending far beyond the actions of those identified in your well written poem,atb L

 

Submitted by littleditty on
yep -horror. and chillingly written. Strong poem, questions work well -when the story in the news now, came out last year - the newspaper blogs talked and talked - good place to place some strong poems --> go to the press :)

 

Submitted by jennifer on
The lack of community perhaps adds to it, a chilling poem, well observed, I also found the ending couplet superbly put, J x

 

Submitted by jennifer on
p.s. not sure about the second comma in the opening line J x

 

Submitted by Ewan on
Actually, come to think of it, neither am I. Yes, it's meant to stop the reader in their tracks... if I were reading aloud I'd do it like that... so that the sense of it is 'actually living in (y)our street', or even that such people do not live, if to live is to be human, do you see? Of course, that might be what you don't like about it, in which case I accept your point of view. Hmmm.... maybe I'll take out both the commas!! Ewan x

Author Page at the 'Zon
 

Submitted by threeleafshamrock on
Superb! Well addressed and chillingly highlights the all-to-often 'normality' that camouflages such evil. Chris