Grrr…

 

Months later when a nervous dog tells me

to back off   –             a denouement.

 

That boy had been trying to tell me the same thing

when I’d asked him to join the lesson.

 

Those kids were laughing at him

and this was my first warning

 

if he were cornered

he would become violent.

 

Rejected by both natural parents

a string of foster parents and GOM carers

 

his amygdala knew about self-preservation.

His body was a 12 year old boy

his brain was a cornered animal, back to the wall.

 

Niceties stripped down it’s

You or Them.

 

His breathing takes over, sucking,

blowing through teeth and nostrils.

 

The rage begins.

The animal returns.

 

 

 

(N.B. GOM = Guardianship Of the Minister, i.e. ‘ward of the state’.)