Underlay (Poetry)
20th May 2012
Under sixties lino — like a secret now revealed —
his photograph beside a headline stark —
this twelve-year-old, gone missing — fate prematurely sealed
by speculation, ominous and dark.
The pages creased, discoloured — but the printer’s ink kept true
the story a front-pager in its time —
those fears stand undiminished with no closure and no clue —
no trace of him — no grave to mark the crime.
Four decades since, but still he grins, be-spectacled and young —
unaging as a changing world moves on —
rarely mentioned now his name once found on every tongue —
compassion spent and fading interest gone.
Out on the moors poor Justice waits for someone to unearth
forsaken bones — yet time and time again
such news will only prove that our humanity’s perverse
as we ghoulishly pick over what remains.
his photograph beside a headline stark —
this twelve-year-old, gone missing — fate prematurely sealed
by speculation, ominous and dark.
The pages creased, discoloured — but the printer’s ink kept true
the story a front-pager in its time —
those fears stand undiminished with no closure and no clue —
no trace of him — no grave to mark the crime.
Four decades since, but still he grins, be-spectacled and young —
unaging as a changing world moves on —
rarely mentioned now his name once found on every tongue —
compassion spent and fading interest gone.
Out on the moors poor Justice waits for someone to unearth
forsaken bones — yet time and time again
such news will only prove that our humanity’s perverse
as we ghoulishly pick over what remains.