As a boy, I was so scared of The Daleks,
You’d find me hidden behind the settee.
For fear of that word: Exterminate,
From our black and white Grundig TV.
I was also in dread of The Mysterons,
“We know you can hear us,” they boomed.
Ghostly circles of light came from nowhere,
Warning Spectrum our planet was doomed.
The Aquaphibians, in Stingray, so gruesome,
Green and scaly with wide, froggy eyes.
Titan’s gurgling henchmen, under the sea,
Busy plotting Troy Tempest’s demise.
But none of these monsters from childhood,
Could compare with the worst you could meet.
Not the horrors I saw on the telly,
They were real and they came down our street.
I overheard mother say something,
Not fit for the ears of a child.
“The Binmen are coming today,” she announced,
Sending thoughts in my head running wild.
I imagined a clanking tin army,
On the march as they hunted for kids.
With jagged, sharp teeth and foul rubbish breath,
Turnip eyes glaring out from bin lids.
They came every Friday at breakfast,
But I never saw them – not one.
When the clanking began, I ran up the stairs,
And stayed locked in my room ’til they’d gone.