Poetry - February 2018


Empty Space

A walk through the streets
A place you once called home
Now set off with wooden fencing and poles
Grass overgrowing in between
There was a sense of community here
Yet it was all taken away
With a mass demolition and clearance
Yet nothing back in its place
The place just feels like an empty space
With the roads all crossing in between
A desolate look of what might have been
Without greed, recession and development
Tearing a community apart
That loved the terraced streets that they lived in
Where everyone knew someone else
And where friendship meant so much
But what now for you and those
As the sands of time have moved on
An empty space, a feeling of nothing
No one really understands how you feel
Unless they happened to live here as you did
The pain, the anguish and the hurt
Of the cranes, bulldozers and workers
Giving way to the silence and the wind.

(I've seen so much where places to live are cleared, but nothing stands in its place apart from rows of streets, overgrown grass and displacement. There could be so much more done if the key word of community is realised to be as important as it should be.)

We Stay Till The End

My friend and I are Manchester City fans
Over the years we've seen so much late action
That staying till the end is an absolute must
Or else you'd miss goals, cheers and the reaction
Imagine if we had left early five years ago
2-1 down to QPR on that fateful title day
We'd have missed Edin Džeko's equaliser
And Sergio Agüero's strike to make United pay
We'd have missed the chance to go mental
As did every single Manchester City fan
Who stayed till the end, watched it, drank it in
Showing that Roberto Mancini, he was the man
I've seen so many late goals over my time
From Paul Dickov's equaliser at Wembley
To a Shaun Goater winner in the Gene Kelly Stand
And I know that it's not over till its over, you see
My friend and I just despair at those who leave
With up to ten minutes left on the clock
We have a big smile every time City score late
Because those that leave must feel a right cock
So the City song rings true but with a different line
For me and my very good friend
We're Man City, we fight to the end
Becomes we're proper City fans, we stay till the end.

(I get really annoyed at how the excuse of "oh, need to get the tram, get into the car" etc means you leave with 10 minutes or so left, especially if you've paid a fair fee for a ticket. None of that for us, oh no, we've seen enough late drama and goals. And cracking goals as per Sergio Agüero's fourth against Leicester City the other day being a case in point.)

Involuntary Luge

As the sliding happens in Pyeongchang
I do really have to wonder
Whether anyone does the luge by choice
Or is it a way of putting someone asunder
Sliding down on the slopes and ice
On a miniscule and very tiny sled
With the feet directing where you're going
And the icy floor being very near your head
It's almost as if you want to be involuntary
And really didn't want to do the event at all
Yet the fear of crashing makes you go faster
And the time you post was quickest of all
Maybe there's something about not wanting
To do the event that makes you focus on the run
So no crashing and no hitting of the wall
But instead an adrenalin rush and a medal won.

(Jerry Seinfeld has a great sketch about the luge in one of his live shows, and it's where the title comes from. "Hey hey, I don't wanna be in the luge... Aaaaaaargh!")

Whoa! Hurry Hard!

You could say that it's bowls on ice
But that's doing the sport a disservice
The sport of curling is pretty tactical
And knowledge of the ice can't be missed
Measuring the weight of the stone
As the handle curls around down the sheet
Heading to the T line and in the hack
Making sure that the score is pretty sweet
Lots of shouting of "whoa! and "line's good"
With more sweeping of the broom
And a "hurry!" with another "hurry hard!"
Trying to ensure that the stone has room
It's a case of making sure you score well
In the end you have the advantage of last stone
Then minimising the gains when you're not last
And when you do well, you'll sit top of the throne.

(Curling is strangely addictive when the Winter Olympics are on..)

All The Love In The World Haiku

Everyone should love
All the time not just one day
Be nice to your love.

(Pure and simple.)