Hamelin
I never meant to be so singular.
One day the Pied Piper came
and led all the other children away
but left me here
with my defective soul and my callipered heart
infesting the streets with my aloneness
never quite shaking off the sense
that people think he should have drowned me in the Weser, too
with the rats.
Melanie Branton lives in North Somerset and has worked in education, theatre and as a full-time carer. Her poems have been accepted for publication by journals, including South, Clockwise Cat and Monkey Kettle.