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Birth of Evil (aka The Origin of Billy the Kid)

entry picture

Lost in gutter talk, 
The history books 
Suggest it was his two brothers
Who took him to the fair
At Longford Park
Boasting of dead fireflies
Instead of fish in little bags,

And follicles of lights 
In the ghost house
Almost invisible from 
The roller coasters
Descending from the sky
Like space rockets 
Replacing sledges.  
 
Crossing the meadows
Blanked in snow 
With echoing laughter 
The reports stated
Then missing balls 
At coconuts stall
Then footballs 

Before proclaiming 
It was fixed 
And gave up wandering
Over to the roller coaster
Leaving Billy stood there
Protesting it wasn’t

Sucking cheap gobsuckers
Hiding his tears
Turning a perfect illustration
Into a pastoral scene 
Of fireworks
Kissing the moon

Tying themselves up
In his mouth 
As a attendant said
‘Six shots for two quid, son’
Accompanying over each shot
‘Lower, lower, lower’ 

Crossing shots over the tins
Like pennies in keyholes
Wrestling with uneven prayers
Chiselling his nerves
Over sweatshop erected fingertips
‘Lower, lower, lower’

Knifing through
His childhood
One shot after
The other
With each target
He shot through. 


(According to the history books Billy the Kid 
was a known hitman in Stretford in the 1970s) 

 

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Comments

<Deleted User> (13762)

Mon 5th Dec 2016 08:43

I'm trying to understand this Andy but not sure why I'm not. The first two verses are excellent but from then on in I'm a little perplexed.

On a purely presentational level, to me a piece like this looks better without the use of capital letters at the start of each line - again not sure why, just a personal preference but I definitely have a thing about capital letters in poetry - not all of the time.

should 'at coconuts stall' be 'at coconut stalls'?

thanks for posting and apologies if my comments are a little vague.

Colin

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