WHEN THE COP GOT SHOT

After the first call came through from Ed,

Angela tried to explain

what he had been accused of

and what might happen next.

But I never really got my head around it.

When kids in my class asked

for the details

I couldn’t think of what to say.

Ed had taken off months before,

right after his big bust-up with Mom.

I had no idea where he was

the day Frank Phelan got shot.

The day it happened

I was on a field trip to

the Liberty Science Center,

eating a bologna sandwich,

thinking about space,

Mars mostly,

a planet so close, so completely inhospitable.

I wasn’t thinking about cops or death.

And until Angela explained it,

I didn’t know that to be accused of murder

in the wrong state was

                                             fatal.

© Sarah Crossan from Moonrise, Bloomsbury