"I Knew You Once"

Probably a decade
Since I saw you last
Didn't recognise you
I just walked past
Going into Charing Cross
To catch a train
I turned round as
You called my name.
A friendly word
You were rather drunk
Always had you down
As a street punk.
So you've moved out to Eltham
It starts to fit
I had you down
As a racist shit.
Maybe mistaken
And you're as good as gold
An error on my part
With prejudgements of old.
You moved from Sydenham
Because it was shite
Did you pick Eltham
As it was preferably white?
Yes thank you, I am well
There wasn't really much else to tell.
Could have said you're quite cute
But didn't want my arse
To feel your boot!
Maybe I should have shocked you
And confroted your fears
I mean wer'e hardly likely to meet
For another ten years
And it might challenge your views
On us dirty queers!

Dulwich Poet 4th October 2013

( A 'stranger' shouted my name outside Charing Cross Station. It was a young man who used to play for Dulwich Hamlet Juniors, as a boy. He had a bit of a reputation as a troublemaker, who didn't like black people. In all honesty I do ot know if this was true or not, and he might now be an ordinary decent bloke. But I based this poem o my preconceptions of him.)