Night Sounds 1957 Poem by Terry Collett

Enid hears
cries in the night:
her mother,

an argument,
Father's voice
bellowing

through the flat.
Enid hides
beneath wool

blanketing
and grey sheets.
Mother screams;

more shouting.
Enid hears
the coal trucks

now being
shunted by
the shunter

on the tracks
in the old
dark coal wharf.

She stares out
in darkness;
just glimmer

of street lamps.
Whimpering,
then silence.

Back to sleep;
soul to keep.