Neil Fulwood

The Villain of the Piece

“I’m so sorry,” she murmurs, digging for change
as her kids go stomping and screaming
down the gangway, intent on the back seats

and I wonder if she means the time it’s taking her
to jangle coins laboriously into the hopper,
or the noise from the back of the bus.

“No probs,” I say, a good catch-all response,
even though I’m running late and the racket 
isn’t doing my tinnitus much good. Still,

it’s only for a few stops and I’ve known kids
behave worse, just as there are adults
it is better not to speak of. She takes her ticket,

shouts to her kids: “Shurrup, or the mester’ll 
throw you off the bus,” never mind 
that company policy re: child safeguarding,

let alone manhandling them, would have HR
humming a jaunty tune in the key of you’re fired.
The kids don’t know this and when they troop off

after her, two pairs of Midwich eyes size me up
as if I’d done something disreputable
like crossing a picket line or slagging off Paw Patrol. 

Neil Fulwood was born in Nottingham, England, where he still lives and works as a bus driver. He has three collections out with Shoestring Press: No Avoiding It, Can’t Take Me Anywhere and Service Cancelled, with a fourth scheduled for publication next year.