‘He crashed a car’, said the clean-cut man, ‘took out
Some pedestrians’. Head yawing from side to side
He wants it to sound like plain sailing, but the words
Are wont to drift off-course: ‘they were just laying there….’

‘Take out’ – a tinge of soldier talk? If so then ‘laying’
Is unconsciously NCO instead of officer class
That’s if suit-and-tie guy is the proper hard-nut in civvies
This day, when an eggshell skull cracked and made omelettes
Of passers by and tourists on Westminster Bridge.

Swivels sideways, sniffs it back in and holds
Hand over mouth for personal protection.
Still there’s a moment when he just might crumple and cry
Fingers clouding the lens – concern for his privacy
Then our Mr Clean-Cut finds his level again: ‘I’ve never
Seen anything like that.’ Like flat, pat and off he goes.

‘Blood…’ [sonorous for a second] ‘…and everything’ [now scaling down again];
For Rocky Horror’s the only show the young visitor knows to go to
With what he’s seen; he also knows it shouldn’t be.