saved

I heard the mothers' cries from up the block
child and poison laced sidewalk chalk
the metal taste of a mouth on a gutter
the cold whisper of a deathbed shudder
I screamed and beat against a locked door
a shipwrecked crew washed up on the shore
a distant echo and the smell of burnt flesh
the disease only our children will catch
the broken promises I could never mend
the way your red hair blew in the wind
the hands we held as we danced in the dark
the flowing words of a decaying art
the end to means we were blind to see
a frozen bathub and a skeleton key
a cold curse on the winter wind
he pulls the trigger as he confesses his sins