Secrets
We could tell there was something
we weren’t allowed to know. Something
kept hidden from us children,
something not quite right with Mr Jones.
We wondered why his wife
had rabbit-in-the-headlight eyes.
When blue lights came that night,
we woke, watched from our beds.
An ambulance for her,
police van for him.
We always knew, the grownups said.
Tonnie Richmond lives in Leeds, loves Orkney and archaeology. She has had over 50 poems published in various anthologies and magazines. Her pamphlet, Rear-view Mirror, was published by Yaffle’s Nest in 2023. She is currently working on her first collection.