Home and Hosed

'...to early beds'

The wind is spent, the dust is down,

The light is playing tricks,

It filters in, fades, reappears

On the tar of platform six, where

The schoolboys are disgorged,

Attached like leeches to their cause,

Splitting hairs and splitting heads,

Home and hosed to early beds,

Lemmings diving in the sea

Line up blindfolded by the wall.

“That is not what we meant at all”

Say mother and father, watching us slip

In their vice-like grip.

Through the tattered world, the stink

Punched full of holes, the useless salty water

Stings, taunting us to drink.