POETRY READ IT OUT LOUD LILY D JAMES please note these poems are works in progress, if you feel they fall down anywhere, please let me know - get involved.
listen, everyone’s dads, can you stop getting ill? stop working so hard, just lay off if you will I know it’s not natural, you being such blokes but, please, slow down, these ailments aren’t jokes.
summer I open my window it’s hot as hell and sounds like hell hearing shrieking freakish laughter swishing bike chain rattled railings then lots of feet running somewhere sirens car crash TV gunshot sounds from a window below and above dull thuds real life beating a belt buckle swings a door slams feet with nowhere to run to, run hear foxes fuck and babies cry and I can’t quite tell which is which a couple argues, hot and angry same tired lines born of tiredness I hear a shower running, time alone heels click on concrete women laugh wobbling home cracking jokes and making me smile they’ve been dancing on feet that escaped for a while sounds good happy feet strolling home there is not often laughter here gangs gather and no-one collects the bins or opinions from us or them so good families left quiet footsteps echo sometimes sound of me closing my window taking the heat
(this poem is brought to you by iambic tetrameter ) the moribund middle classes are making little lists of all the things they have and everything they’ve missed “oh dear what have we missed?” now they want to own the cities they want to own the council flats schools for their own little people playtime with smoothies, yoga mats they pout and shout and stamp their feet no money left, they fear the chop the social ladder kicked away no more room nearly at the top “might have to sack the nanny, love” so they’re losing benefits too along with the right to feel smug or better placed than me and you we all now face redundancy all face inflation and despair when looking around for comfort they're finding it's no longer there their boss, their broker, their system have all forgotten to play fair the cracks are showing in the dream it’s called designer-wear and tear.