They tell us all to climb the tree,
To reach what hangs for all to see.
But though we stretch and though we try,
The fruit remains too far, too high.

A fox will feast, a lion dine,
While sparrows peck at crumbs and pine.
The branches bend for weight and pride,
But never lean to those outside.

We’re told, “Grow strong, and you may rise—
The climb is fair, the prize the prize.”
Yet roo...

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Your eays hold stars that light my way

A gently grow at the break of day.

Your touch is warmth, aspak to true

Like dawn's soft kiss and drops of dew.

Each Breath you take , a song so sweet

A melody where heartbeats meet.

Your laughter dances in the air

A whispered promise, light and rare.

Through  storm  aand sun , through time untord

Your love is fire, fierce yet gold.

...

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Lay your thick white blanket on our land

 

Cover up the corruption

The beggars scavenging for food

 

Lay your thick white blanket on our land

 

It freezes the lies in mid-air

Gives the children a smile

Freezes the parents’ tears

 

Let the thick white blanket stay on this earth

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There but for the grace of God, I thought,

As he rose from his place on the pavement

And stumbled to the shelter for some soup.

Fifty, probably, but looked ten years more.

Unshaven, stinks, frankly, but still too proud

To ask for a bath. How did he get here?

Not long ago, he had a job, a spouse;

Then both disappeared and his home with them.

‘Bloody fool,’ he mumbled, ‘no di...

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Beneath the aching winter’s shroud,

A child walked mute through the bustling crowd.

Her feet, bare whispers on the frozen stone,

Her ribs a harp of hunger’s tone.

 

She carried a box, her treasure, her thread

Of tiny star-sticks, sulfur-fed.

She called to the rich, the hurried, the gray,

“Buy one, kind sir, and light your way.”

 

But no one paused, no coin was tossed,

...

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Desperate poverty in The East End of London all too true

Ten-year-old Alice never complained, what good would it do?

She had reached the age to travel with her family to Kent.

Leaving behind the dirt and smog, their struggle to pay rent

Hop picking in 1920 the children did their share of grafting

Alice loved the clean air, the food, the banter and chatting

She fell in love with K...

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A nation,

That steals

From the

Poorest

To give

To the

Richest;

Not good

Enough

For me.

Swearing

Like a

Trooper;

Good enough

For World

War Two;

Good enough

For me.

Philip

Fuckin’

Almost

Laureate

Larkin,

Good enough

For royalty;

Good enough

For me.

Socialism’s

Loaves and fishes,

Bread and roses;

Good e...

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Bread and Roses for All

One swallow will not our glorious summer make,

Nor red-tied frauds, true friends of labouring folk:

No friend of mine can love Apartheid’s yolk,

More swallowed lies, our nation’s heart will break:

Britannia’s future guard, for our Children’s sake,

Compassion’s spirit we must now invoke,

Let zeal for justice fill our Hearts of Oak,

Lest fate make any ...

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A ragged boy
Picking up garbage
A malnourished girl
Carrying around
Her brother
A family of five
With patched up clothes
Lonlely old man
Sipping on a cigar
Group of workers
Doing manual labor

A smile
Caught on Camera
Doesn't prove a thing
A smile
Frozen on a
Framed photograph
Doesn't convey the truth

They may not have everything
But they are the happiest
-The world's best l...

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I remember in poverty,
eating ramen noodles,
daily.

Beans and Weenies.
Meatless sauce
spaghetti.

Rice, Rice, Rice,
without any real
spice.

Bologna Sandwiches.
Hamburger Helper
mixes.

Fried Spam,
and all kinds of meat,
canned.

Hot Dogs on a stick,
burnt to a
crisp.

Catfish from the creek,
yellow belly
meat.

Milwaukee’s Best.
Another broken
promise.

The cheape...

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In my entire life,
the worst things to come
upon me,
has come at the,
hands of respectable
people, who call themselves
good.

It has not been,
scary men, in dark shadows.
It has not been,
those people, across the sea.
It has not been,
the conman, stealing my soul.

It has been,
men and their wives,
who own businesses,
and lands,
and courts,
and governments,
and religions,
too...

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“Food banks” for the poor.

Nurses work in poverty.

“Food pantries” if posh.

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Poor little match girls.

Can you hear the people sing?

General strike now!

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Emblems 

A small yellow stitch against green and black,
Secret inspiration, strength in the mud,
Anguish and poverty dragging us down,
A relentless and cold North-England town,

Days upon days of unrest and ill ease,
Scratching for sunshine, empathy, fun, 

Uniforms hang or squeeze, they don’t fit,
Seven clear months ‘til a government cheque,
Anger, bad attitude, untold frustrations...

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To Winston, Paul B all admin and, everyone.

Imagine you come from Poverty, complete and sheer poverty. Imagine too, your creative mind, wiping the floor with Eton and Oxbridge Candidates.

Imagine that, you have too many coincidences of being 'put down' under bogus accusation. Imagine too, knowing that all you do, is being filtered so only a select few know of your intellect, compassion, tale...

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Its a pain in the neck and no mistake

Locked down, our busy lives on hold

But what of the billions less wealthy

Forever locked out in the cold?

 

Locked down or locked out

Are two very different fates

We blandly wait for a vaccine

To benefit our richer states

 

In Africa the virus is poverty

Immune to vaccines and drugs

Kids locked down all their lives

Regard...

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They seek shelter from the rain

In the doorways of the city

Although the lights shine so bright

Believe for them it's far from pretty

Watching the world pass them by

In a kaleidoscope of grey

Feeling like nobody notices them

As we continue with our day

All they ask for is a moment

Someone to stop and talk

Providing them with some comfort

From life's painful, lonely...

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eating off the floor momma aint got no plates

she shield me from the world full of crime and full of hate

all of the world going on outside my window, i got a little curious

fell in love with the danger and it made my momma furious

she stopped paying attention

told me her warning was already mentioned

i went on because i no longer felt the love

the streets gave me more affecti...

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resolution

I don't do new year
there is a lot of noise here
none of it is mine

when the chimes kick in
auld lang syne hands are unlinked
as phones point skywards

cascading fireworks
fall on lost souls in doorways
where poverty lies

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Recently I took a trip to Cardiff and was shocked by the level of homelessness in the city. It’s there but for the grace of god for all of us. I feel we ignore this. Having lost my job after a stroke, I was lucky to have insurance and a pension, if not then I may well have been left homeless. We never know what cards we will be dealt. Next time don’t just turn a cheek.

 

Next time we turn aw...

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There’s Gonna Be A Party 
But Your Past Is Not Invited.
Dreams Aren’t What They Used To Be,
Darker Days, Darker Ways.
Life Ain’t What It Used To Be,
But Death Is Always The Same.
One Day There Won’t Be A Tomorrow.
Unless My Heart’s A Bomb, 
Time Is An Illusion.
If Love Is Blind, The Sun Won’t Shine.
I Am Through Everyone’s Eyes, But Mine.
Though Time Is Just An Illusion, 
For I Cannot ...

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Albino In The Snow,
Steaming Red, Left For Dead
And I’ll Wait To See If You Have A Soul.
Lost Her Glow.
Mouth Of Foam And Barely Grown
And I’ll Wait To See If You Have A Soul.
Painfully Numb’s Only Begun.
In A Few Days The Way Of One.
Crawling Towards The Heat,
Ants Inside Her Feet.
Feeling For Fire, Waiting On The Worms.
Dieing At Her Place Of Birth,
Selling Life For What It’s Worth,
...

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Pound shops and takeaways,

salons for grooming of

dogs and their owners

sit side by side.

 

Rancid fat acrid

in back alley junk piles,

settees and Christmas trees

slowly decay.

 

Damp homes

in damp climate

for cotton mill workers

no longer needed.

 

The forest of chimneys

now superseded

by new build in miniature,

room sizes shrinking,

 

l...

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She lies awake at night,

eyes wired,

frantically reading

anything, anything,

to not think about it,

to patch up the cracks,

sew up the seams,

stuff the holes with cushions 

made of trash TV and Facebook,

while the mould seeps

down the bedroom wall,

letters lie ignored

re: default sum unpaid,

again.

So sick, sick

of hospital appointments, 

waiting in ...

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My funeral is a live cremation
My home is a burnt out tower
My plight is that of a nation
One of selfish gits wielding power

I am a ghost haunting the streets
My home is your left or right wing tv show
My place is within the gentrification scheme
Lost somewhere I don't know

I raise my voice to be silenced
My concerns are shit on the heel of your shoe
There's money in death and violen...

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Oblivia 

 

You look at me through your new found fashionista,

Tell me that I am boring,

I understand,

Why would you speak of the

Dull state of today?

Stars, planets, climates, people, love,

 

You perspire to the empty beat of a London club,

Held together with Hennes zip,

Peer through designer lenses,

Moulded to diamond encrusted frames,

 

Colourful ri...

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From the lamplight of the factories, to the smoke and endless fumes
The workers toiled from dawn till dusk on ever spinning looms,
Ne'er did these places hear the sound of each bitter tear cried,
These were the places where some were born and just as many died.   The workhouses and squats of Victoria's kingdom fare,
Never saw many smiles, although many memories formed there,
Painfu...

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The Government Standard

 

 

     The band didn’t want to play,

They didn’t want to march

Through streets paved with

Gum and fag butts and poverty,

     They didn’t want for glancing

At bloodstains from a

Previous night’s brawl,

They didn’t want for none of it

At all,

 

     But as soon as the note

Struck, they knew their place,

Knew of nothing else

T...

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They’re Blaming Themselves

 

     A couple argue over something trivial,

And the snarls - rants and discord

Reach fever pitch

     Until,

They are left to part

Their own silent corner

Of a damp tired home,

     And it’s a sad fact of life

That we argue at all,

But here in the deepest

Troughs of poverty,

The stress management can reach all

...

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A silence fell upon the city,

contorted shadows twisting moonlight.

Stuttering in a speakeasy seemed so misplaced

bottles rattled flickering like Fedora feathers

in an unforgiving wind.

 

The wretched odour of deprivation

a stench that sticks and degrades ones existence.

Even by day this city remains a lifeless sap

and by night the vampires feast on th...

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the trickle down poetics

coiffed, varnished, double dipped,

lay waste the oubliette of empathy

 

no balm, no salve

shall expel the foreign body that

thorns it’s path in the digital red apnoea

of each choked fallen promise

as they steal your desecrated breath

 

your lips are still moving

 

your lips are still moving even

as your face turns blue

...

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You think poor is…

One car not two

semi, not detached

the right school

the wrong brand

the wrong label.

 

I think poor is…

Tide-lines

thick enough to pick at

cardboard soles

in shoes with holes

and stains that don’t

wash clean.

 

Together

we know poor is…

the curl of a lip

in a hostile world,

the shame

of not fittin...

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I am a rebel against torture 

I am a rebel against pain 

I seek an end to hunger 

I seek an end to the shame 


The shame that comes from knowing 

all those children dying without water 

all those children dying without names 

all those children dying from war 


Why do men play their vicious games 

why do those men pretend to serve God 

when all they want is power ...

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Black

 

Black coal down the mineshaft so deep

Takes a pale sheen as my eyes do weep

Days without comfort are sending me down

The caged bird twitters but I still frown

 

Escape to the surface via cable or pills

The former brings succour, the latter masks ills

Sometimes my anguish calls the loudest of all

While strength I seek from a larder too small

 

©R...

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