One Under at St Paul’s
Central westbound, strangely
grabbed from standing sleep
by scream of brakes which didn’t
stop when we did
but migrated into mouths
of those who saw him under.
Someone sighed.
Some other knelt and looked.
How cold the pillow
onto which he pressed an ear,
and listened to it sing.
What violence in that lullaby.
James Parris is a writer and performer currently based in East London. He also works as a theatre and filmmaker and his first short, A Lone, is currently in post-production with Try Hard Film