My Poems

Lyrics by "Borissey"

He was socially close, untamed, unmasked
His magic medicine uncasked
He didn't care so he never asked

He'll brush it off, he's so athletic
The tough guy, leading man aesthetic
No chance it makes him empathetic

He'll rise above like Kilimanjaro
Always survive like the Cult of Skaro
Covid can't hurt Bolsonaro

Last year, I wrote a poem (a pantoum) called 'This Place' about visiting my son in the adolescent psychiatric unit where he spent four months (read it here).

He now has his own flat, living independently with support. So I decided to write a follow-up poem of the same length in the same style, hoping that this will illustrate the wonderful progression.

Teenage, British, black, autistic
Prosecuted by the Crown
Against the evidence, convicted
- Free, oh free him: Osime Brown

From care to care, from place to place
Twenty-eight times moved around
Neglected, let down, failed, displaced
- Free, oh free him: Osime Brown

Fearing exile to Jamaica
Left at four, it's unknown ground
Prison cell a spirit breaker

When my team lost to a goal in the last five minutes of the match from a free kick that should never have been given and got relegated and my face went down with them, you didn't tell me that all football clubs matter.

Action seen in Bristol
Is truly unforgettable
Poor old Slaver Colston
No longer on his pedestal

Colston was a slaver,
A taker not a giver
Protesters did a favour
Now Colston's in the river

We can't go to the boozer
We can't go to the barber
But we can tear that slaver down
And chuck him in the harbour

The white
power cap
on the top
of the head
of the cop
with his knee
on the neck
of the man
on the floor
by the pass-
enger door

Who said please
I can't breathe
and who called
for his mum
stopped responding
went numb
but still
bore the knee
and the weight
and the hate
of the cop
who still
wouldn't stop

They held a peaceful protest
People didn't notice
Nothing changed

Then they rioted and burned
The world watched and learned,
views exchanged

The respectable people said
Their cause is just,
but why must they riot?

Why don't they hold
a peaceful protest?

Teachers say:
Let Daily Mail writers be heroes

Let them walk naked through war zones
Let them battle with an invisible enemy

Let them fall on the battlefield
in even greater numbers than they already have

Safe in the knowledge that they will be
lionised at the Daily Briefing

And that Matt Hancock may
issue a badge in their honour