…in 25 minutes (poem first published in Iota 54, Spring 2001)

It was the 25 minute cab ride into hell.

The driver started with:

You won’t remember me but I remember you well.

And then proceeded to describe

What came after he’d been expelled—

Each Glasgow gangland bombing

Each prison cell

Each beating

Each prison food smell.

25 minutes later

The old teacher was glad to be

Delivered to his hotel.