Earth-Prowler

Meanwhile, in a loft room in another Parish,
a boy is up. He usually sends himself to sleep
by pretending he is under an avalanche.
'Can't move... legs bust... blacking out.'
Tonight not even the night milk helped,

so he swung his bust legs out of bed,
and plugged in his Namco retrogame pack.
Thunder from outside.
Thunder,
but no rain.

Past Pacman and Rally-X, onto Dig Dug.
He clutches the joystick like an enemy's wrist,
returns the screen's laser-stare.

(The aim of 'Dig Dug' is to send Dig Dug - a blue man in a white spacesuit - tunnelling through the strata of the earth's crust in order to flush out Pookahs and fire-belching Pygars that live underground. Once Dig Dug has them in his visor-sight, he can harpoon them with a bicycle pump. If he hits home, he must pump the monsters full of air until they explode. Otherwise they might get him. Beware! They can move through solid earth by turning into a pair of eyes!)

More thunder. Ground-thunder.
The double-glazing rattles.
The boy spears monster-after-monster
keen as a Japanese whaler.
The last Pygar makes a desperate escape bid,
but Dig Dug is waiting in the topsoil
like an Astral Ahab, with his unlikely death-rod.

As the beast goes up with a bang,
the light-bulb swings, the floorboards
go up and down like piano keys.
Dropping the joystick, the boy bounds to his window.

He can see fields between the houses -
mashed up fields. Pulped like a boxer's face.
Ploughed from underneath, churned
by the surfacing of a subterranean
white whale.