The Sunday Poem: burning car by Andrew McMillan

we drive past at twenty-miles-an-hour to try
and get a closer look   the seats melting
in the chassis' furnace      the heat slipping
inside   reddening our faces   not shifting
for another junction   our own car close
and muggy with the smoke            so often
in the worst of it   I longed for someone
to rubberneck past the living room
take in the scene      the way your anger scorched
the place      left its residue for days until
another thing blazed up      would it have been different
with a witness? someone to take the keys
from my finger   walk me away   tell me
I was good   that they could see that I was trying
as they eased the can of petrol from my hand

Andrew McMillan is an award-winning poet and novelist. His fourth collection is forthcoming from Jonathan Cape next year.

Illustration by Chris Riddell