Tom Bell, On a Bank Holiday

 The urban legend of Tom Bell, a cannibal and outlaw who lives in the caves as Hardcastle Crags

Pale magpie man cries out on

Wide open ground, clay hard and lead

Tipped rain needles milky from the wind

The air caught in his throat, so raw

So tender with blood

O come ye, come ye hikers foragers

Ramblers all

The couple with matching dryrobes and cheek filler

dogs , endless fucking labradoodles just

Waiting to sniff out his hidey hole

Under two layers of black oak papers, the force

Of holding in the meat the viscera

Set free in this vast, gulping acre

The ochre swollen clay and rhinoceros skull

But is that just a story now to frighten the children?

For a long time now reality has been altogether

Uncertain and mocking

The fox with women’s teeth grins back at his

Own broken face as if to say

O God O God

What have you done?

What have you done now, Tom?

Florence Hutchinson is an artist and writer living in West Yorkshire, she writes poetry and prose inspired by the uncanny, folklore and the brutal Calderdale landscape.