Nowhere to run to
What was he running from?
Well what have you got:
the blood-soaked news of course,
theme parks, leaf blowers, HR,
but also the language
that had somehow begun to seem
more violent, more violently banal,
more unfit for purpose
than it ever had.
Not that he’ll get away, of course.
Because you can’t escape words
any more you can
the sweat-soaked clarity of 4AM,
the dirty windows of the dawn,
even if the trains
actually got you to Crewe,
and you could change,
keep going god knows where.
Charlie Hill is a critically-acclaimed writer of novels, short stories and memoir. Website: charliehill.org.uk