Part XIV

(With the Monster trapped, Brooks, Ghana, Michelle and Andy remain at loggerheads)

Mewling in fear

‘What the fuck is it?’

Brooks said eventually

‘It’s crippled or killed

Nearly a dozen men

Alone tonight

And we suspect

Maybe dozens more

Over the past two weeks’

Mapping her words

Ghana paused

‘It’s a long story,

Albert’

‘They’ve called in the Army

And the press are asking questions,

Ghana’

‘It’s mankind’s last great protecter’

She said.

‘And now mankind’s great killer’

Andy cut in.

Part XXIII (A and B)

(Two more pieces today - i nearly didn't blog the first but the tenderness counterbalances off the madness of Part B)

A

Coughing slightly
once she had finished hugging him
Ghana spoke
'Albert'
she brimmed
bleached in the sunset.

'Ghana, it's been a while'
He smiled.

It had been a while.

Too long for both of them.

B

Flitering through the estary

Chisteled in clay

The last kill

Was reckless

Even he knew that

Diving out of the shadows

Towards a group of men

At the edge of the river

Trying to tell them to run

Only creating laughter,

Laughter until he nearly

Killed one of them

And fists began hitting

His side,

And the rat in him

Became a wolf

And madness covered

The moon.

Part XXII

(A gag this piece but it reveals more if you think about it)

Shattering impulses
the tension in the air
was as clear as broken ice,

chipping away on roofs
and in the shadows
of the nearby coach station

twisting questions
into answers
as Brooks looked at Andy
'We've met'

to which Andy
looked at Michelle
'Everybody knows me'

'Stick to the cheese burgers'
brooks cripped
'Nobody will care then' 

Part XXI (A and B)

(Two parts today although it could have been one almost
covering the meeting between Andy, Michelle, Ghana and Michelle
and a hint of something in the past)

(A)

‘Ghana’ Brooks said as soon

as the three of them

turned the corner

‘You’ve lost weight’ Ghana smiled

draining the tension

like a rising sun in a field

diminishing the tension

slicing the past into the present

rejoining lovers from different backgrounds

back together

(B)

‘I’ve given up the burgers

and joined the gym

What do you think?’

Brooks said smiling

‘I’ve been busy

dealing with killers

druggers

tossers

drunks

you know’

dealing his words

like a poker dealer

casually throwing his cards

onto the table

without worrying

what the players would get

‘I know you’ Andy said

stepping out of the shadows.

‘Everybody does, boy’ Brooks

answered

‘Even heroes at train station’

Part XX A and B)

(Part 20 sees Brooks  waiting and another piece about the Monster)

XX (A)

Almost carrying through

Some of the buildings

Like a ghost’s footprints

Brooks’s cigarette smoke

Carried across the corner

And across the river

Biding its time

Offering a distinctive

Double meaning

With each puff,

Telling all to hurry

The bloody hell up

Without having to say

Another word

Knowing he was

The middle man

Without wanting to be.

XX (B)

By the end of the

Second week

The hunger was immeasurable

Asymmetric in sweetness

Faces crying out sometimes

Other times not

Fashioned in caculated pain

Touched in sadness

Sometimes remembering

The name Lucas

Other times not

Sometimes endless tunnel;s

Cutting deep into his throat

Blinded in others laughter

Faster

Faster

Before his blindness eroded

Whispering in his ear

Stripping memories

Into poison

Then hunger.

Part XVIV and Andrew Smith II

(Part 19 moving straight along takes Andy (from his point of view this time) and Michelle and Ghana out of the underground or project if you wish back to the streets and the village, explaining everything has changed even if you haven’t realised it)

(Also included is the second guest poem from my friend Andrew Smith)

XIX

Let’s take this street you said

Then the next and 

Walk past the amber light of

The clock of St Anne’s Church,

Next to the dusty smell of

The Royal Exchange 

Leading to Waterstones

Where bodies vanish over-night

Stare up at the caged moonlight

Looking at us 

Like a book of illusions 

Dipping into our skulls, 

Changing the meaning

Of all that I knew existed before

Within minutes of 

Walking out of the tunnel,

****

Movement in the dark, damp space II

The world seemed so dark

As I lay in this pit of misery

The memory of blood and fear was still so stark

A horror scene forever etched so grisly

They seemed so few at first

Feasting on friends I had worked with for years

But the iron warm scent brought more with a thirst

Teeth and claws, red eyes and pointed ears

It was supposed to have been a myth

Rat people of Manchester a joke

A tall tale to drink and toast with

Not the ripping of flesh and blood to soak!

I dare not move, or even breathe

All I could do was listen

As one by one they started to leave

Dragging varying sized lumps that seemed to glisten

When the coast seemed clear

And silence descended

My consciousness shifted a gear

Clarity of thought momentarily mended

I appeared to have been spared

My limbs seemed remarkably intact

On my feet I assessed how now the situation faired

Thoughts of flight mixed with fear totally wracked

No one would believe me

I’m now suspect one to the crime

I needed proof or never be free

Or be the most hated of my time...

Part XVIII

(Part 18 focuses again on our old friend, the killer.

Dropping more hints onto his nature)

Curling in a corner

For a good half a hour

Or so later,

Its next kill proved

That traumatic

It couldn’t bear

To run away

Once it had fed

Let alone have the strength

To run away

Instead dragging itself

Into a shadow on the canal

Until it heard

The usual scream

That usually greeted

His handiwork

Over floating with guilt

With each drop of blood

He ripped out of the lad’s throat

Knowing he should have just

Put them out of their misery

Full well knowing

There was nothing

He could do about it.