Devilton* Days Poem by Richard Whiting

I wish that I enjoyed life
as much as you.
Welcome in,
you thrill-seeking
devil-teenagers,
you avian swerve-pilots
with your screaming engines
roaring above the streets,
like Bank-Holiday Mods

taking just enough
of the insect life
to stay alive, feed the folks
then striking out
for the hell of it all,
adrenalin-rush fuelled
your halcyon days
as high-wire hedonists
deviling* through cumulonimbus

black lightning
on a Brough Superior I wish you’d park
by the back-gates but never do,
just swinging with your cool pals
in high-Goth costume
until a gap in the August sky
snaps you in its jaws
and the wise leaves turn
to follow your passing.


* Devilton, Deviling. Suffolk names for the Swift (Apus apus) .