#9 - My Book's Better Than Your Book

I open my book in a cold autumn park -

a child immediately topples from the swings,
blood drooling from his blameless eyes.

Am I claiming there was a causal link?
Well, let's just say that page 24,

paragraph three, has the phrase: 'Children
bleed from the eyes because they are manipulative.

What they lack in restraint they make up for
in grand guignol set pieces. We ought to

give them a small, ambiguous trinket each time
they act up like this and say: "Here

is your reward," coldly, the way a traffic warden
might when tucking a ticket behind the windscreen wiper

of an empty car in Winter.' I slap
my book shut -

a tramp's skull collapses
like bellows.