SEQUEL

SEQUEL

so much
frightens us

fear
can hardly be
more pervasive

and me
on the couch
in your bedroom
spending the night

thought we
would read love poems together
but here we are
turned Hansel
and Gretel

you telling me
fairy tales
reading me
my riot act
of a bedtime story

suddenly something
inside outside
in the space between us
has turned enchanted forest

a war in the pub behind
the off licence, a sequel
of sorts
     over how, blood
gets sullied and
the State gets, poisoned

and as we all stream East
directives to
destroy
   every house
where there might
be gingerbread

horror
     not to be spoken
about
  worst species of witch
next tale
to be told being
a sequel
of sorts dictating who
gets
  a cuddle, what
orphans get dumped
go full sleeping beauty on
tragic trajectory

we
   counting the beads on
your ancient
rosary

entrusted to you for
wholesome protection
by someone’s tramp, vamp
much
    misunderstood
stepmother

and now
spectres from a
haunted past rising
up
  from their graves to
propogate the sugar
sweet myth.
of a delicious future

ovens for burning cakes
on an industrial scale

stuff
   of nightmare for us
to dream upon

now that hope for something
deeply, deeply shared
             has drifted so far away