Prompt for Hour Five

Text Prompt: Write a mystery poem. The crime could be real or imagined. The poem could be clue based or narrative. The details are up to you.

 

So Close

 

‘Oi, Oi, what do we have here,’

Deep breathy voice behind me, quite clear

as I picked up the pace, not looking back for fear.

It was dark, and my phone was deader than

the summer, which had given way to winter.

Bypassing autumn completely.

But I stray, had been a long day and I was on my way

Home.

Keep walking, don’t talk to strangers.

Don’t flirt with dangers,

I said to self as I had said many times

many years ago, to growing children.

Avoiding wet slippery leaves

I considered breaking into a trot.

Though, obviously not.

It had been four decades since I last trotted.

I thought I saw a van drawing abreast.

Imagination, pictures in my mind, a Netflix fest.

Me shoved into van, driven away to warehouse,

Shackled and left to rot… I began to trot.

‘But who would want to kidnap you,’

The smarter side of my brain taunted?

Who would want a fat, funny, female in her fifties?

Tap on my shoulder, my shriek made the van drive faster

till I saw the red taillights disappear round the corner.

‘Madam,’ said Mr OiOi.

Older than me. Fatter than me. Out of trotter than me.

‘Madam,’ you left your scarf in the train.

Handing it to me along with my sanity.