From Spelk, Red Squirrel Press

https://theblacklightengineroom.wordpress.com/2015/01/30/the-black-light-engine-room-info/

 

 

Knowledge

 

She screams

surprising shoppers,

her unwashed, unloved face

soiled with hate.

 

She doesn’t say, you don’t love me.

Why you staring?

 

She screams and screams,

silenced with a slap.

 

 

Sweet Thing

 

 

The baby’s eighteen months,

 

working on having major dental work

 

as she drinks a sweet bottle of juice

 

that eats her teeth.

 

 

She makes a perfect ‘O’ with her lips,

 

soon she will have gums cut,

 

lose months of speech development;

 

she sucks harder

 

as the mother blows cigarette rings into her buggy.

 

 

‘Your mum and dad.’

 

(From Philip Larkin’s ‘This Be The Verse’)

 

 

She studies alone,

 

night after hard day.

 

 

Parents examine

 

their drinks carefully,

 

 

worry over her,

 

every day and might

 

 

try to ring at two

 

in their grey morning,

 

 

leave blurred messages

 

on her dead mobile. 

 

At Four O’ Clock

 

 

children drum down the lane,

 

take off shoes,

 

leave them on the wall.

 

 

Skateboards rattle,

 

cars fumble behind one another.

 

 

A girl stands by big brother,

 

protected by him,

 

placing her shoes by his.

 

 

 

Tom Kelly

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Black Light Engine Room – Info!!!