The George Crabbe Memorial Poetry Competition

1998 Crabbe Memorial Competition - Third Prize
Adjudicators: Martyn Crucefix and Judith Kazantzis

Small-town families squash in rows
of darkened plush

sweet wrappers crackle
as the lights go down

Hercules is briefly
an amusing baby

Suddenly we're in hell

A skeleton poles a boat
over a lake
brimming with lost souls wailing

and sinister shapes
drape
flap and howl

A child behind me
whimpers "I'm frightened!"

Her mother responds "Shut up!"
and hit-hit-hit

Whenever the action
takes us back to Hades

I'm looking over my shoulder

Copyright © Florence Cox 1998