Track byKim Cameron
It was 3am and the streets of the city Were soaked by the deluge of rain. The neon and sodium lights reflected brightly from the polished pavements. With no movement save that of the rain itself And the alternating colours of the traffic light, The streets were silent - And then the rats came. They came from the sewers that overflowed With the increasing demands of the flood - Out of the drains from all sides they came in their twos and threes, Two and three hundreds, two and three thousands until The alleys and paths, the bridges and streets, The main thoroughfares and the precincts All were filled with the scurrying of feet And the dull sound of the rain hammering Upon the shining black backs of the teeming refugees - On and on they came to take shelter and to feed At the feet of Christ who hung upon the cross Outside the Church of the Sacred Heart in the centre of the City's square; And here in their hundreds of thousands they ate And having done so slipped away into the night From whence they had come - By morning, the waters had subsided As had the tide of rats, and the centre of the city was unchanged; Unchanged except to those whose early journey Took them past the Church of the Sacred Heart And who noticed in passing that the eyes of the hanging Christ Now looked to the darkened sky and the feet were gone…