Judicial Review

This is the poem I posted on fb 22/04/13

#80 Judicial Review

Judicial review

It all needs to be changed

From the stop and search

To the death row lane

The system is corrupt

Yet it can’t be stopped

Too many years of us supporting this stuff

Middle classes running a muck

With four chambers

Cosy meals

By the time you get to court

They have already done their deals

It’s a performance

In their wigs and gowns

We are just the props

They are the clowns

If it’s a civil matter

You will meet the Lay Magistrates

They will send you down

This is the Authoritative Police’s playground

Crown Court cases can be tried

If you get caught out

You will be doing time

The Jury of twelve are not your friends

They have knowledge of your case

They will not understand or defend

Jury service is a selection process

The least experienced get the most

This system has been in place

Does n’t make it right

If you oppose it

Get ready for a fight

Who benefits

Not you or I

We will be at the mercy of the courts

Till the  end of time

Being Hard on Myself

I am my worst critic, I am being so hard on myself.  I set this challenge and it was just to keep me busy I guess.  Every now and then I get a ‘Like’ from a FB friend then I am like yeah that’s nice.  For the most of it my work goes unnoticed.  I am enjoying it, it has brought a very new dimension to my day.  I look around for ideas, I see inspiration almost everywhere.  When I say look it is a preoccupation.  Sometimes it is just the lack of vocabulary that prevents me from getting a poem together.  I tap out things on my Blackberry whilst on the train, I will find a scrap of paper and jot something down.  I have poems in various states of readiness.  

Sometimes poems I write frightens me.  Sometimes they have a strong political slant.  Politics are everywhere, others are just so damn personal and intimate.  I am like can’t share that.  This is why I started in performance poetry over 13 years ago and to date I haven’t published a poetry book, a collection.  Well with this FB challenge I am hoping the book near enough produces itself.  It’s a foolproof idea if there is anything like that.

Posted fb 20/04/13

#78 What Was I Thinking

What was I thinking

I can’t do this

There is only so much writing

Anyone person can submit

I’ve reached my limit

There is nothing less

What can I say

I tried my best

I have ideas

But nothing concrete

Let me put my pen down

And admit defeat

I’ve written over 100 poems I am sure

They can’t expect any more

Some have been average

Some have been good

There is nothing left in me

I even taken it to the Hood

I am so opinionated

I talk so much

There must be something left

Just a little touch

Something I can expand on

Something that will grow

If I don’t try I will never know....

.....

Haunted by Abuse

A friend of mine once confided in me and told me her Grandfather committed suicide he was in his 80’s.  The information troubled and confused me at the time.  So as a creative writer with a very active imagination.  I decided it must have been something he had done in his past that was haunting him.  I could picture him day in day out watching the sunrise and watching the sun fall yet not being contented even though this was his retirement dream (yes I added that bit).

Since that time I have heard of more elderly specifically men committing suicide.  As an abuser what do you do with your thoughts?  there has to be a time however warped and twisted you maybe when it suddenly snaps as to how Vile you really are.

Posted Fb 17/04/13

#75 What Happens to Abusers?

What happens to abusers

I really don't know

Do they wake up one day

And just say I have to go

Do they suddenly stop abusing

Realise the lives they were using

Do they rock on the verandah

Watching the sunset

Each and every day filled with regret

Do they get buried in a special section

Or do they get cremated to quicken their descent to Hell?

Sophisticated Bullies

Bullying at any stage of life is can be soul destroying.  As an adult we experience bullying at work, often feel helpless, somehow under the impression that this behaviour only happens at school.   We know it doesn’t yet it is so difficult to articulate when you are experiencing.  I know I have been bullied or coerced into making a decision at work.  I look back and I can’t even explain how it was done, but i know it was n’t a decision I made freely.  Something about conforming and that desire to be accepted.  

I wrote this poem in response to  a situation that I feel I had advised my daughter about.  When bullying in school happens we always expect it to be physical and involve some threat and money extortion scenario.  Well not always Bullies are more sophisticated these days relying on subtle objecting to everything you say, talking over you, copying your work and pulling people you are playing with to play another game that you are not invited to play.  Either way it is nice and it hurts.

Posted fb 16/04/13

#74 Why You Hit Me?

Why you hit me

I will never know

Is it my presence that angers you so?

I know from time you have been gunning for me

My Mother said 'Ignore' and let you be

Now all the mean words

And the off key behaviour

Me ignoring you

Has somehow made you braver

Did you think I would not tell?

While you continue bullying me

Putting me through this Hell

I don't know what's going on at home

Maybe if you were nicer

You wouldn't feel isolated or alone

I am not here to analyse

I am just getting on being a child

All I know is:

You hit me and you made me cry

For that you will pay

I will gain no pleasure or smile

When they punish you

Send you on your way

Let you know that this type of behaviour will not be tolerated from you

The hit that you gave me brought tears to my eyes

The distorted World you live in is made up of lies

Are you that twisted you just want to see me cry?

Sibling Rivalry

Your Position in the family is so important in regards to your character.  I am the youngest, to which everyone has their opinion on. Let’s hear it ‘You are Spoilt’  To which I would strongly object.  I was n’t and I did n’t feel spoilt.  I am the youngest in a rambling family of eight siblings, we have suffered that colonial split whereby two of us myself and the second youngest was born in England while my other siblings travelled when they were in the early teens to England.  It was a strange feeling knowing you had brothers and sisters somewhere out there that you didn’t know.  I know this is the story of many families does the resentment on each group ever end.  I resented the fact that the reason I could n’t get a bike was because money was either being sent to support my siblings in Trinidad or sent on numerous occasions for them to fly over.

Well I was n’t so affected about my position in my family I was the youngest that was it.  First I was the youngest of  two, then I was the youngest of eight.  Was I spoilt? No! definitely not.  Is spoiling such a bad thing?  Yes it is the worst you can do, it gives that child a false perception of life.  They will go through life not being able to interact with others as we have all had to do.  The way we have to make an effort when meeting new people to ensure they like us (yes that’s what it is about) Children who have been spoilt find it difficult to accept that just their presence alone does not warrant admiration, adulation and some sort of party atmosphere.  Why Parents or Grandparents spoil a child openly it makes me angry.  I feel that someone should pull them up on it.  

The only thing that should be rewarded with special treatment is good behaviour not looks as these are generic and they haven’t done anything to acheive these looks.  The changes families go through effects all of us in different ways.  We don’t sit children down and introduce the subject of  a new sibling if (we asked the opinion) most families would only have one child.

Posted fb 14/04/13

#72 What’s Love Got to do With it

What’s love got to do with it?

Strangely enough a lot

She stood on the chair

Doing her bit washing dishes

Giving it all that she had got

In the other room a new arrival

Who was vying for her spot

She was happy

She told herself

How could she be anything else

Now she would have to fight for her survival

A few weeks ago she was the apple in everyone’s eye

Suddenly this baby has come along

They no longer notice her go by

I watched, I observed what could I do?

This wasn’t my family

This family I barely knew them at  all

I witnessed the rise and the fall

I would take her away for weekends

Treat her the best I can

Here on the weekends

She was allowed to pretend

I had a soft spot for her

This I must confess

The baby grew up and stole the show

Brilliant and pretty

That’s how the nurtured grow

Well who would’ve known

After a few years an elder brother arrived

Really this is what happened

I have no reason to lie

Now she wasn’t the eldest

She also wasn’t the cutest

It was an upside down world

In which she had to exist

I watched I observed this little girl

All she had was her song

What’s love got to do with it?

It had everything to do with it

Because now it seems she’s lost the lot.

No Homes for the Homeless

There are so many people who are homeless, and go below the radar.  The housing situation is appalling I know of people waiting in excess of 3 years for a permanent home.  The system works and this is going to sound contradictory, it works for those who are truly homeless and truly in need.  For example if you have had a row with your parents, you think you have had enough, you turn up at the housing office and they break down the options, they  direct you to a very grubby unsafe looking hostel, at this point you make a decision can I repair the situation back home or am I going to spend a night here? Believing that you may lose your life.  You spend a night you don’t lose your life you may wait on average 6-18 months before a permanent home can be found for you.  Most of us would return home or go to a friends and take the sofa option.  Once you go to a friends or relative and take the sofa option you have lost your place in the homeless waiting list.  

Men have it the hardest, as they do not qualify for  a place on the waiting list unless they are referred from various institutions or agencies Prison or a Home with Drug, Drink or psychological problems.

How many times do we walk past someone homeless on the street?  Torn between that self righteous dilemma of judging them, questioning what they are doing there, we gain some sort of comfort believing it is of their own doing, drugs or drink.  It doesn’t make it any more acceptable.

What needs to be done, is they simply need to build more houses in the Social Housing sector which has been undermined since the ‘Right to buy ‘ policy from the mid 80’s it made a lot of people house owners but unfortunately took a lot of housing stock out of the Social Housing Sector.  Everyday I walk past a new development of those Swanky Apartments that no one I know live in or can afford.  Now what is that about?

posted fb 13/03/13

#70 Homeless

He wore the same trousers

He wore the same shirt

The same everything from the day before

And the day before that

We thought he was being street

Turns out he was living on the street

He was homeless and we never noticed

And we never knew

We assumed like us he had somewhere to go

He was always there

That should have been an indication

We never noticed

He had nowhere to go

He was homeless and we never knew

Attack on the Poor

Recently in the News its as if there is an attack on The Poor, it’s 

everywhere.  I think it is unwarranted much of the wealth that the 

Middle Classes have, they have inherited from their grand parents 

who no doubt were Landowners and Landowners were inevitably 

Slave owners.  Whenever the poor try to accumulate wealth it as if 

obstacles are put in the way.  

The first major obstacle are Taxes there are loopholes and Tax 

avoidance, One comes with a hefty sentence the other one doesn't.  

It would seem the Middle Classes understand taxes particulary 

inheritance tax. That's the tax imposed on your children when you 

die leaving an estate worth more than 250,000.

With Poor education, poor housing, (Ghetto type living) lack of 

opportunities it is inevitable that the Poor stay Poor. Where I 

work the jobs seem to be saved for the Son and Daughters of 

Employees. I work within the Public Sector so I dread to think 

what it is like in other sectors. They have a wonderful 

apprenticeship scheme (try applying I dare you). Then they have a 

wonderful Post 

Grad scheme darn if only you got 2.1.....No comment, this is just 

used to reduce the potential amount of people applying for these 

roles.

The Poor are made to feel that all the problems are down to the 

fact that they are  Poor. With wealth comes power, freedom and a 

political voice.  The Poor are kept busy with signing on and 

attending interviews for jobs that have already been filled.  I 

wrote this poem after an article I read in the Metro

posted fb 06/04/13

#64 Poor Uprising

How did I get here

With my poor housing

Poor education

Poor nutrition

Poor experience

Poor etiquette

How did I get here?

When there nowhere else to go

Trying to get out of this poor claw

I am fed up of being poor

I don't want to be poor any more

Caught in this poverty trap

No getting out, so that's that

The poor tried uprising

The Government dealt with that

Yes that's what the riots were about

The way they dealt with them was surprising

Harsh sentences banged up to rights

No short stay overnight

Criminals were made

Now making them criminals, is that really the way?

No one wants to employ a criminal

Keeping them oppressed with criminal ties

If you were poor wouldn't you up-rise ?

Or would you sit back and pretend you never knew

That how you got here wasn't completely down to you