assassinations
JOHN F. KENNEDY d.1963
I was sitting crosslegged in my grey school skirt in front of Josie Hibbert’s tiny Bakelite TV. Upstairs her Mum was dying of something quiet. We ran upstairs to tell her and she cried.
MARTIN LUTHER KING d.1968
I was with a black haired boy called Dave, in his room still decorated with Noddy wallpaper. Downstairs his Mum cooked egg and chips in a long sleeved blouse to hide the bruises.
STEPHEN BANTU BIKO d.1977
I was walking through the Arndale Centre. A TV called to me from a shop window. Two stores up a shabby man was shouting. Security was there telling him to move on.
JOHN LENNON d.1980
I was sitting at a green Formica table. Across from me a girl was smoking roll ups. She’d gouged zigzags into both her arms. We drank tea as she picked at the scabs.
Andrea Porter
