night of the armed siege

the bloke who lives two-doors down

likes to sit on the steps of his flat

“hey, you want a pair of jeans?” he says

 

i’m tired after school – that bored-tired

of sitting in hot classrooms, not learning

as morons mouth-off at scared teachers

 

“they’re a bargain,” he goes

 

so, i walk into the flat  

he closes the door behind me &

i see it's laddered with locks & chains

 

the hallway has a rack of dresses

& the lounge looks like

the stockroom of a 7-Eleven

 

his daughter is on the sofa

watching a cartoon & feeding her baby

“what’s he doing here?” she says, tutting

 

the man shows me a box of jeans

“these’ll go fast,” he says

& he looks at my no-brand shoes

“i have trainers. good ones”

 

i buy jeans & an adidas tracksuit

with money from my saturday job 

he doesn’t have trainers in my size

 

he can get some, tho, he tells me

brand new. maybe next week

if I want them

 

i return home & mum is

crying in the living room

she wants to top herself

 

i tell her it’ll be alright, giving her a hug

i feed the dog & go to my room

to try on the jeans & then the tracksuit

 

i lie on my single bed

light up a joint & listen

to Percy Sledge’s, When a Man Loves a Woman

thinking about a girl in my class

 

later that night the bloke

two-doors down is arrested

armed police aim semi-automatics & pistols

at his flat, talking into radios, blue lights flashing

 

a plain-clothes copper

uses a bullhorn to tell us

to stay in our homes &

keep away from the windows

 

mum is on the phone

doing a running commentary to nan

standing by the bedroom window

she sounds happy & alive (for once)

 

the guy eventually walks out slow

hands behind his head

he’s told to get face-down on the road

plain-clothes coppers put on the handcuffs

 

i realise I’m never getting my trainers

 

mum yells at me to take the dog out

 

i put on its lead and everyone is opening their doors

leaving their flats to catch a glimpse of the guy

being pushed into the back of the meat wagon

 

the air crackles like a night-game in a football stadium

i see the daughter being led to a police car

screaming at a woman who is carrying her baby

 

i head to the playground, letting snoopy off his lead

wondering if i’ll have the guts to ask out the girl in my class

&, if we go on a date, whether she’ll like my new jeans