RESPONSIBILITY

Piercing alarms of siren
Announced the emergency of ambulances
jumping at astonishing speed
Squeezing through humans, cars, bicycles
In these busy streets of Central London
They were followed by tens of police vans
Flashing red and blue and orange lights
On that freezing night of Saturday
Heading towards Croydon - East

In their own words,
A parent had heard them prophesy
'Tonight we will get wasted'
Teenage sixformers - all race
 Had headed towards, The Pub
With fake ID cards
A place where girls, in high heels
Clip clop to the bartender
For one more shot until
They are lost enough to bring back home
At 4am - a complete serial killer stranger

At the crime scene, drunken boy
Stabbed seven times breathed out
His last words 'away from there'
With painful precision
Echoing the very last words
He had heard from his helpless mother
Accused of abuse for daring
To advise him against that birthday party

Rushing through the snow
Nurses hopelessly gathered
His intestines
Before they discovered lying next to him
One more - shot dead
So frantic a scene -
With tight dresses at thigh length girls were
Scattered - as policemen in tears
handcuffed victims and perpetrators

For many, that night had
marked the beginning of a wasted life
Sentenced for life - some
Criminal records - others
Society in return labelled them as
nuisance, deviant, unwanted criminals

Advice from parents and adults
They had refuted
Wanting autonomy way too soon
In a complicated world where only
Those who had been there have
accurate accounts of roads to avoid

For some, that night had stamped
The end of a youth so full of opportunities
Two weeks before final exams they had
the right to be given
The respect due to an eighteen year-old in Britain
Not knowing that it was their right to enjoy life
But the impacts of their past on their own future
Was their responsibility.