EVIL

Evil is a junkie
in stained tracksuit bottoms
with brown nicotine fingers
looking at you in the bus station
at 1.22am
and the last bus gone

Evil is your father
factually dead
in a cold stainless steel room
blue lips under white lights
and no way to bargain or negotiate

Evil is a forty two year-old speed dealer
living in the bedsit upstairs
sending a fifteen year-old girl down
to ask if you have any tinfoil

Evil is your grandad
lost his mind
and smelling of piss

Evil is the hardest of your mates
knocked out with one punch
going down like a bag of laundry
who never went down before

Evil is your face in the mirror
at four in the morning on acid
your eyes all wrong
while the room breathes crookedly behind you

Evil is your child
screaming for you in the night
'cause there's a big black spider
in his mouth

Evil is the red-faced man
who works on the waltzers
with "cut here" in blue ink on his neck
and red doc martens

Evil is your girl -
no answer when you knock, but
a shadow behind the upstairs curtain
and her friends can't look you in the eye

i am trying to break off
my engagement with Evil
but he is always there
however nice the neighbourhood.