overland literary journal

OVERLAND 189
summer 2007
ISBN 978-0-9775171-6-9
published 21 November 2007

Cops on Horses

happy slap the cops on horses
as they slap us to make some room
and chuck something fizzling to the ground
so we’ll breathe and see foggy stings,
a double hoof stomp for the slow ones in black
and the kids in school torn and shredded shirts all white,
a bad day off for some working right in Maccas on weekends
in the cold room, deep-fried girlfriends, boyfriends crying now
screaming later on the mobile mum dad classmates tv-news-heroes,
but the paddy full of chants and high pitch anger is the document to
warn us against improving, because this cage could be ours and our hands shaking
through skinny bars at what they see on the tv when they should be scared, it’s said
over and over in thin suit unison but in the end
there is only rage instead.

© Jonathan Hadwen
Overland 189 – summer 2007, p. 73

Like this poem? Subscribe!