Who are These Men?

Who are these men who would do you harm?

Not the mad-eyed who grumble at pavements

Banged up in a cell with childhood ghosts

Who shout suddenly and frighten you. Not they.

The men who would do you harm have gentle voices

Have practised their smiles in front of mirrors.

Disturbed as children, they are disturbed by them.

Obsessed. They wear kindness like a carapace

Day-dreaming up ways of cajoling you into the car.

Unattended, they are devices impatient

To explode. Ignore the helping hand

It will clench. Beware the lap, it is a trapdoor.

They are the spies in our midst. In the park,

Outside the playground, they watch and wait.

Given half a chance, love, they would take you

Undo you. Break you into a million pieces.

Perhaps, in time, I would learn forgiveness.

Perhaps, in time, I would kill one.