Such A Price To Pay

cold
down hometown lane
moth pulled
to the beacon blue
thick siren wail of
death’s ghastly debut

cruel
spiteful pother
masked sight
of the wrecking ball
that snuffed my young friends
flavian candle

crushed
sanguinary
grisly mound
flecked with scarlet dew
which grim grey blanket
can’t hide from my view

chill
wires bind my legs
but run
with blood like cold lead
while by the schools yard
I was the one dead

chatter
had preceded me
with news
of corpse with fair hair
many gasped and cried
as I now stood there

class
united in tears
we sang
with dust motes dancing
in sunlit eddies
“Morning Has Broken”

This one of those true moments in my life story. When I was nine years old I came across the immediate aftermath of a friend, called Paul, who was run over and killed while attempting to cross a road in thick fog to get to a candy store on the way to school. We all used to walk alone or with friends to school from a very early age back then. This was the first encounter with death in my life