Michael Wilson
To tea
You're worth the guilt of empire
I'll be the chai wallah
Good for the system and
The best way to take water
I love you
My mug of tea
How did they find you?
Trial and error perhaps
They say anything an ape eats
You can eat
But I should imagine
Despite the PG tips advertisements
Apes can't get a brew on
This second poem is about careless words in the media.
A random act of violence
Off my medication
Drunk
Angry
Deluded that the swarm of traffic
Would be allowed by the police
that day to run me over.
Losing it
I jumped in front of a car
Opened the door
And shook the driver
Cautioned for assault
Lucky.
That's as close as I ever came
To the fantasy of
Spraying the town centre
With a Kalashnikov.
I heard on the radio that in Cumbria
A so-called sane man
Carried out the fantasy
Going postal
(U.S. slang for mass murder).
Hysteria
"Psycho killer!"
"Ban guns!"
"No more rifle ranges!"
I was the best shot at school
Boys will be boys
How the West was won.
Insane does not mean violent.
Killers get hold of guns no matter what.