One touch and you Become it
Playtime in the streets.
All of you in a line, behind a Wolf
who has his back to you.
What time is it Mr Wolf?
Four o’clock! He shouts without turning.
You let another little girl or boy,
too eager for their own good, too innocent, go head
whilst you make four tiny steps.
You move forward but very slowly,
you don’t want to be his next victim.
You’ve grown out of that now of course.
You are nearly an adult, no street games for you now.
No shrieking gang of kids.
Just you and him in the office,
the windows full of black.
His eyes glinting like the winter moon,
toothy grin a bare bone found in a field.
This requires stealth, quick escape.
One touch and you become it.
Footnote.
(What’s the time Mr Wolf? Is a game of tag that used to be played in the streets).
Anna Saunders is the author of Communion, (Wild Conversations Press), Struck, (Pindrop Press) Kissing the She Bear, (Wild Conversations Press), Burne Jones and the Fox, Ghosting for Beginners, Feverfew and The Prohibition of Touch – all Indigo Dreams. She has been described as ‘a poet who surely can do anything’ by The North, ‘a modern myth maker’ by Paul Stephenson, and Tears in the Fence said of her ‘Anna Saunders’ poetry is reminiscent of Plath – with all its alpha achievement and radiance’. She is also the Executive Director of Cheltenham Poetry Festival.