DEN

By P.S. Lynch

On 9th February 1983, Dennis Nilsen was arrested after fingers and human flesh were found blocking the drains outside his home in Cranley Gardens, Muswell Hill. Nilsen murdered at least twelve young men and boys between 1978 and 1983.

Remember the time

Flash

bulbs

popped

in Cranley Gardens?

ITN pulled up

in a Transit.

Bedford for the Beeb.

Sideburns and sheepskin.

Shitstorm.

Mum was on

the Six O’Clock.

Stood in the drizzle

wobbly brolly nodding.

She called Den a

loner.

Job Centre job.

Quite quiet.

But busy,

she told the Six

(dead chuffed).

Mind you,

hewas

strangling

queersintheatticflat.

Boiling up the bodies

stuffing vital organs in

bin bags in the wardrobe

flushing muscle tissue

down

the

loo

with Harpic Alpine Fresh.

(Keep anyone busy, that.)

Bleep for company.

Den dreamt of Géricault

and his pallid boy on

The Raft of Medusa.

A wreck,

adrift.

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