police accident

we crouched, eyes just above the sill,
listening to the static of radios
watching policemen drawing chalk
histories on the giant blackboard road
and the youth bowed his head and cried
as cautious chess moves were played out
with patrol cars, blocking the view
and colouring the street blue nothing blue.

they all waited for the ambulance
to retrieve the body we hadn’t seen
while petulant traffic ran as rainwater
into sideroads and people gathered at
front doors & bay windows like condensation
trying to deduce guilt
a measure of the order of things
the way it happened
but the faces held other stories
which we should never have guessed at.