Helen Dunmore - The Malarkey lyrics

Why did you tell them to be quiet and sit up straight until you came back? The malarkey would have led you to them. You go from one parked car to another and peer through the misted windows before checking the registration. Your pocket bulges. You've bought them sweets but the mist is on the inside of the windows. How many children are breathing? The malarkey's over in the back of the car. The day is over outside the windows. No streetlight has come on. You fed them co*kles soused in vinegar, you took them on the machines. You looked away just once. You looked away just once as you leaned on the chip-shop counter, and forty years were gone. You have been telling them for ever Stop that malarkey in the back there! Now they have gone and done it. Is that mist, or water with breath in it?