What Some Good Looking Guys Get Away With

This poem was in my head, for ages just going around around.  It is something I have thought about.  Fortunately never experienced.  I also got my inspiration from a J Ivy video about a Woman  in an abusive relationship

Posted fb 25/04/13  ( This generated a lot of comments) 

#83 Good Looking Overlooked

"He looks good and have you seen how he wears his clothes?"

"His girlfriend has a black eye and a bloodied nose"

"I would like to give him my number

Maybe I could show him a good time"

"The doctors said she was lucky this time"

"Have you seen what he drives? I know I would look good sitting beside"

"They have so much together one or two childs"

"I know being with him will be such a thrill"

"The hospital pumped her stomach for taking too many pills"

"He is soo good looking how I wish he was mine"

"You are not hearing me

He beat his girlfriend for the last time"

"He's finally locked up

Doing bird

I hear they have him bent over just like a girl!"

JLS Badly Managed

I think they Management got it wrong.   They should have worked more on where they were going to place them in the Music Industry.  Their image always seemed wrong, they all have these very very pretty faces then they are going for some sort of straight out of Harlem pose????   Then one got married not the things the fans need to know. ..... Blah blah blah

I wrote this in minutes after a colleague at worked commented on the fact that JLS were splitting up.  I was very dismissive about it saying they realise they will never have the success 1Direction will/have had.  They have already eclipsed them.  That’s the name of the game 1D are more marketable we are told.  I actually agree.

Posted Fb 28/0413

#84 It Makes my Heart Happy

It makes me happy when I see success

It makes me happier when the ssuccess is where you didn't expect

With things stacked against us

It's easy to give up

And to believe all the negative stuff

Getting on with daily life is a success

There are so many distractions

There are so many tests

When I see Black guys progressing on

It makes my heart happy

Tell me there's is nothing wrong

I am sure I am not the only one

OK Let's Talk About Colour

This will be posted on fb 06/05/13

#93 Emeli Sande

Read all about it

I love your sound

I love your song

But what has happened to your pigmentation

Is this the answer for our great nation?

I am here to say it is wrong

Is this the only way you could make it

Was getting lighter

Now your future is looking brighter

To fake it

We have spent decades

Pursuing the dream

This is the only way it seems

We are in a sick society

Where someone has to change their identity

To get recognition

For their God given ability

This whole situation makes me cry

She is not the first

That has had to lie

Why cannot we not listen to the voice

Not have to force these songstress

To make this blood curdling choice

I am women of colour

Right now my colour is blue

This is a travesty

Tell me Emeli this is not true

I don’t have this talent

Would I make these changes

To be accepted on this planet

I would like to say NO!

Look what happened to michael

And the way he felt he had to go

Nature Nurture.  What if I wasn't Black would I still have these views?  Would I be so opinionated, would I feel that I had to share my views on absolutely everything.  Would I have such  wealth of knowledge and experiences.  Simply would I have lived this life?  Have I experience poverty ask me that 100 years from now.

I have to be philosophical about wealth it comes with being Black.  I am always looking for the Silver Lining.  I have to keep up beat otherwise a sad faced Black Woman that look has been over done.

I experience some form of Racism every day of my life some more noticeable than others you don't complain.  'Oh so you didn't get a seat on the bus/ train' .. 'What no one wants to sit next to you' ...'No you go first, I insist' ... ' Promotion? yes you are right 'I probably ain't ready' ( I know I trained the person you are promoting over me) guess they got summik I just ain't got.  Maybe I am looking at this all wrong.  Next time I am followed around a store, I will pretend they are my body guard and I am a celebrity.  See always looking for the silver lining ....
posted fb 01/05/13

Let’s call it ‘Special Treatment’.  It’s no longer Discrimination it is ‘Special Treatment’ So let’s talk about some ‘Special Treatment ‘ my Daughter has been receiving recently she moved into a new school in Essex she is considered to be a high achiever always in the top set of the class.  It took two terms for her to be placed in the correct grouping.  Some more ‘Special Treatment’ was after 3 days in the school a little boy in her class felt it necessary to tell her ‘He didn’t like her’ which wasn’t nice she is only 7 after all.  Then randomly during a sports event a ball randomly connects with her head she falls to the ground and in unconscious for a while.  (Not to  unusual but the School decide not to follow their First Aid procedure regarding head injuries) we are not notified and it is not logged in Accident Book.  Even more Special treatment is she is excluded from Comic Relief picture after she took part in Gangman Style school dance event.  More recently she is excluded from a Maths Group she has been attending in the previous term.  All others are allowed to attend on first day back at term.  We are summoned to come and collect her, on the way there they  say there has been a mistake and her name has now been located (there are only 8 children on the list) and more to the point the Exclusion/ Damage has already occurred.  Fortunately she is only a child and is completely oblivious to all this ‘Special Treatment’ Which is good because it breaks my heart.  Yes we have moved into a predominantly White Neighbourhood.  Houses were cheaper there is more green spaces.   What can I say we needed a change.  

They say ridiculous things like they didn’t give her a letter about the Head leaving they assumed she had a brother or daughter which is laughable in a school of 600 children there are maybe 15 Black children .  She joined two terms ago if she had a sibling I think it would have been apparent needless to say all other children in the class got a letter she didn’t more ‘Special Treatment’

What can I say after being stabbed with a pencil by a girl who has been bullying her by taking friends away from her each play time for the past two terms ( which strangely went unnoticed).  I have decided that all the ‘Special Treatment’ is leaving her open to Bullying, Harassment and other unpleasant things which no doubt will go un reported it’s as if she doesn’t exist and if she does she has no feelings.  Or they simply want her to leave so they have got their wish we are putting in for a transfer before anything worse happens.  Oh yeah date check it is 7th May 2013 and there is a Black President in the White House.

#89 Naturally Black

Honestly those are my features

That is how I look

I do not fashion myself on some magazines

Or what you find in a book

I wake each morning

I appraise myself as I look in the mirror

No foundation, no eyeliner,  no filler

It’s all me

This is how I want to be perceived

So I wash my face and brush my teeth

Naturally black

In all that it means

We believe we need help

Honestly we don’t

The beauty lives within

This we must promote

posted fb 03/05/13

#91 No More Vaguely Black

10 denier Vaguely black

Was all I could get

There was black or mink

Which made your legs look pink

I was vaguely black

What was I saying about myself?

I am Black but I am not sure

Now we have a variety of colours

We don't have to be vague any more

My preference is black

This is me rebelling

From the days when I wasn't quite sure

Now I am affirmative Black

No more vagueness

Stand and be counted

Black Just Black!

Housing Benefit Changes

My how time flies and you lose touch with people who have been significant in your life.  I returned back to the Test Track were I first met john,  I will call him John coz that's his name.  He was heading for retirement and just trying to enjoy the last few months of work.  I told him I write poems, he said he didn't really get poetry, I assumed he did based on his age, the fact that he listened to Radio 5 well how wrong can  we be when we assume.  He suggested I write a poem about what I do.  I am a Safety Critical Officer for Public Transport.  I love the way that sounds.  It really is that good other than it is currently under threat and it involves lots of early mornings and walking.

So I went back after two ok three months and he had retired and it had all changed.  I was so pleased with myself.  Firstly I had my poem I wrote about my job in the company magazine, that week.  Yes I have been published and on top of that I had written 3 poems about an issue which was dear to his heart.  Really should be dear to all our hearts unless you are rich then in that case 'Well Done'.

It took my cousin Annette who works in Housing to explain how 'The Benefit Changes' Effects people who are in most cases the most vulnerable   People being forced to move because they; are unemployed; on housing benefit living in social housing.  The only stable aspect in their life is their Housing or less give it's correct term 'Their Home' they are being forced to move out if they are under occupied. That's the jargon for a spare room.

So here are my 3 poems for John My Muse.  It's ok he knows

Posted fb 04/05/13

#92 They’ve Made a Mistake

They’ve made a mistake

Its all a big joke

I am waiting for the punch line

But it never comes

They have devastated my life

Now they expect me to run

Not likely

They need to find someone else to bully

I have worked hard all my life

Retired, now trying to enjoy

The fruits of my labour

Now you want me to move

To do you a favour

You have neglected to build houses

Is this my fault?

I am being made to pay

For your shortfall

You pick on me

Because I am old

I cannot mobilise

Get organised

This is a travesty

This is not right

I am not leaving

You are not taking me alive

I will stay here

Starve until I die

Sorry You Have to Move

Oh you are sorry it has to be this way

You say your hands are tied

Not taking complaints today

We all know why

To leave my home

Because of a benefit ruling

Who are they hoodwinking

Who are they fooling

They want to break up communities

Destroy lives

There is more to this

Than meets the eyes

Have we failed them?

Have we angered the power that be?

I wasn’t involved  in the riots

So don’t punish me

Another Faceless Estate

I have to move

I don’t know when

I don't know where

I have been told

I have to move

Just like that

I have to go

I’ ve lived here

Too long to recall

I was a Wife

I was a mother

I am a grandmother to them all

Now I have to move

Don't I have a say?

Why me?

They’ve changed the rules

It is enforced today

They changed them almost overnight

Where is our gumption?

Where is our fight?

They say that this place is too big for me

Is it my fault life changes predictably

That the children have flown

My husband has passed

This is my home

I am the last

This is where I belong

They are not listening

They don’t care

That everything I have ever done

I have done right here

The children

The grandchildren

They know where I live

If they move me to wherever

How will I survive

I don’t know anyone

New area

New fears

I know this place

I have known it for years

I should've of bought it when I had the chance

They were ‘t giving mortgages

For this high rise muck

Now it is too late

This is my fate  

Moving to yet another

Faceless estate