Sitting in the car again.
Night.
Summer night.
Warm and still.
Looking out on blackness,
the lapping of some gentle water –
nonchalant in the shimmer of streetlights.
Back on the main road, a gang of lads were acting like they owned the street.
It’s the thing you do. Yell out. Fill the space with your noise.
“Oggie!”
What?
It’s just something you shout…
when you’re pissed…
and out with your mates…
and a fucktard.
Sorry.
Judgemental of me.
Far less judgemental to scare the shit out of anyone else on the street, shouting a word that means nothing, signalling you’re a fucktard over several blocks.
I’ll stick with quiet ripples.
There are enough people taking the street.
The streetlamps form an honour guard down the promenade.
It’s for people who need to see their way home. But I’m not going that way.
About the author, John Hulme
John Hulme is a British writer from the Wirral, a small peninsula near Liverpool in the North of England. Trained in journalism (in which he has a masters degree), John’s first love was storytelling, trying to make sense of the world around him using his offbeat imagination. Since the death of his mother in 2010, John’s work has grown increasingly personal, and has become heavily influenced by Christian mysticism. This has led to the publication of two poetry books, Fragments of the Awesome (2013) and The Wings of Reborn Eagles (2015). A mix of open mike performances, speaking engagements and local community radio appearances has opened up new avenues which John is now eager to pursue. He is hoping to go on a kind of busking road trip fairly soon, provisionally titled Writer seeks gig, being John. Find out more about John on Facebook.