Monday 31 October 2011

Failing Forwards

When eggs were in baskets
Too pissed to stand
I saw it in him.
Emotion, withheld.

Failing forwards,
Being a man.
Picking features
From the floor.

I saw his smile
The pleasure in it.
I saw the human
Behind the wall

Sunday 16 October 2011

The Walk to School

The Children are back
Walking to school
They see the rain
Dark, distant cloud

The hand held and
The hurried up
The wonderers,
Who don't get there

The rain soaked and
The wearers of coats
Walk the same path
To be lined up

The timid and
The bullying
Each shouted name
Become the same

Monday 5 September 2011

Belle Isle

Darker clouds took the last rays of sun from Belle Isle
As we walked the long road to a city that ignores us
Past the brick and concrete constructions of our youth
House by house, to the car covered barrier in our minds

We swam all night in a human sea, drawn like flies,
to half drown in bright light, sirens and screams
surfacing on Sunday with no money to return
A spiralling southern staircase, our own hands and feet

Bread Cake Bramley

Bread cake Bramley
With a potato wedge smile
Half moon, loose and seasoned skin
White, stubby, beer bottle arms
With a black label tattoo
Butt end fingers,
ringed with nicotine
Pin hole, salt shaker eyes
Staring

A View from Armley Prison

There is a view from Armley prison
A heartland on which to reflect
A view of clear skies and towers
In spring, happy visiting faces,
every morning's missed
A view of grey, pissing rain
Autumn cloud and concealment
A cold distant Christmas
Tired, empty darkness
Bright morning

Our Time

This is our time in Belle Isle
Margarie and I, dawn quiet,
the clear up and shut up of youth

On Heights estate, the gunnels of
discarded bottles are open
In Middleton and on Cavalier Hill

We're like birds who've waited for the roost
nights of noise have given over
to the morning power brokers

We tap our sticks on no go areas
the enemy asleep 'til lunchtime
this is our time

Happy

A dog called happy
Hippies my uncle calls them
Then he won't turn up for tea

Tuesday 17 May 2011

Separate Rooms

You see me, almost. sometimes
In a dream with you, Leaving school
In nineteen fifty two, dancing
knowing what to be

We don't speak. Like we used to
"seeing the family soon" A mention for the weather
This June, which has been the same
For over a week

It used to be in that look or smile
Not for a while. The jokes
haven't lasted, we only share
our distain

Who is to blame,
These useless connections, lack of respect
Didn't check, memories, swallowed,
Down the rat poison way

Today, we pay for our 'lack of doing' crime
waiting for our time, in separate rooms

United by Screens

In a suburb of boredom I am connected with you
Carricatured, youthful with little we can do
Denied our agency and with lives others don't see
We find each other online, were we exist, you and me
We are are vilified, patronised, compared to their youth
They restrict our access, take our time. They invent the truth
We should have a "real conversation" they say
But we are real and we are talking, our way
We know what we want and we find it online
Electronically connected almost all of the time
Until we can choose our lives, we'll seek to be free
A truer connection and the acceptance of what we see
That we're actually human, able to think and in our teens
We're sharing, we're sociable, we are united by screens

Futures Fall

Sinking words set out to cut
We're in this together but
Tight belts leak loose change
While others lose what their generation will not regain

Schools are forgotten with past promises of repair
With extra money for those with golden stairs
The same doors feel opportunties knock
Rations are offered to every high rise block

Hard decisions, the acceptance of job loss
A wave of worthlessness, new faces lined with a cross
The day darkens on a burden shared by all
Pennies drop and futures fall

A City Centre Restaurant

I imagine having an early night
In a city centre restaurant
Dropping off to the constant
of conversation, nothing about you

Half asleep as those who drank too much
and stayed too long, leave
Deep sleep amongst vague light
The quiet where noise has been

Sun through windows, buds of sound
Empty space within
Walking amongst tables to find the door
The street and the day as before