' ' ' ' Centaur(For Brian)

Hiding in the hay me a terrified little boy & my uncle like a terrified little boy the voices in his head telling him to be afraid of all strangers...changes. He’s been like this since the day his Dad(my unknown grandfather) died. My Aunt’s voice searching for us...searching us out. Her shouts like bloodhounds hunting us down her words angry & cruel. Her angry voice slurring us into: “DonallSeanie! ” as if we had fused into one being a metamorphosis of us. The hay cooks us and we swelter in our hidey hole A chicken sits on top of my uncle’s cap as if his mind had materialised into this shape. He rocks himself and rocks me. “Shhhh...boy...shhhh! ” comforting both him & me. “Don’t leave me! ” he clucks the words scattered around him like newly laid eggs. I settle into his silence. My Aunt’s threats freezing us in this terrible heat. His chest hair tickles my nose. The cut on my left big toe throbs through the open sandal. My uncle cries in fear. I wipe away the tear with the dirty edge of my sleeve. We escape to the West field me riding his shoulders transformed into a legendary creature that only exists in myths fleeing from the realness ...of reality.