Deconstruction

i

The world is mostly safe and kind –

Clean your teeth, work hard, be good,

Polite, on time, and you will find

That life rewards you as it should. 

Don’t fear the ones who break the law –

They’re far from here, locked up in jails.

Be good, be kind and we’ll make sure

That monsters stay in fairy tales. 

Then

       suddenly 

    everything changed. 

Parents’ faces lined with doubt;

    anxious warnings:

Come straight home. 

Stay away from the woods. 

Don’t talk to strangers. 

Why?

    What had stolen 

         the joy from simple life?

In time the panic faded. 

Life returned

   only a little less

       carefree,

       safe. 

Years later we learned 

   of children taken,

      horror upon horror. 

Of Brady, full of lies,

   of Hindley staring cold ahead,

and understood a little of

   our parents’ fears. 

ii

The Christian group was fun. 

Prizes given for various games;

a leather-clad Bible my reward

for memorising 66 strange names. 

The leader, with his sleek 2-seater car,

conkers in woods nearby,

girls in the group that caught

my adolescent eye. 

The stories were great:

the broken roof,

the children blessed,

the punning fun

of publicans and paralytics. 

For months we went,

my brother and I,

until the stories grew darker,

and I quaked and sobbed at night

afraid that I was bound for hell. 

My mother wisely 

banned us from the group.