UNDERGROUND MONSTER 1956

A BOY AND GIRL IN LONDON IN 1956.

Don't like dark tunnels
Janice said

it's a tube tunnel
trains come in
and out of it
I said

we were sitting
in the underground
train station
watching trains
come and go
while we waited
for our train
to Waterloo

I keep thinking
of monsters
coming out
she said
breathing fire

no just trains
I said
no monster

she screwed up
her nose
smells
she said

does a bit
I said
does in the cinema
sometimes
especially
in the afternoons
when you get
grown-ups
and some one
hasn't washed
for a while

she waved her hand
in front
of her small nose

her red beret
was on a slant
on her fair hair

when will our
train come?
she asked

when it arrives
I said

she didn't laugh
or smile
but when
will that be?

I looked at a clock
on a wall
3 minutes or so
I said

Gran said
not to get
in people's way
she wasn't going
to let me go

until I said
you were going
with me
and she said
O that's all right then
if Benny's with you

there you go then
I said
your gran's
got her head
on right

she stopped waving
her hand in front
of her nose
and put her hands
in her cardigan pockets

bit cold too
she said

you'd be a right one
to take on a polar trip
wouldn't you?
I said

are you going on
a polar trip?

no not yet
but maybe one day
when I'm grown up
and left school
I said

could I go?
she asked

if you don't moan
all the time
it gets cold
or windy
or short of grub
I said

she looked
at the tunnel
as the sound
of a train
sounded loudly

we stood up
gawking towards
the tunnel end

a wind blew our way
whoosh
and the train came
rushing onto
the platform
like some
big monster in red

(just a train really)
but a big monster
inside her head.