The Way I See It
The shipyard painter, political activist and razor-sharp cartoonist Bob Starrett has just written a new book The Way I See It on his eventful life and times. Below we reprint one of his stories and review an essential read
La Boheme
ENO's production of La Boheme is a triumph,
Paul McGrane - The Wake
Monday 01 October 2012
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Saw, just now, a picture in the paper
someone has thrown on the floor in the Square.
They've given her a different name, a daughter,
and a mother who is only forty-four.
If asked to put an age on her,
I'd have stabbed at fifty-something-or-other.
First time, I thought, I've clocked her in colour.
Here's to the offy, the boozer, and the bar.
She would show me the stars,
The Big Dipper, Cassiopeia.
Would go on about how constant they are,
etc.
Here's to the moon and the sun and the cider.
She would cry a lot. Had a great big scar
on her shoulder, a blackeye bruise under
her breast. Let me run a finger,
slowly, over one and (once) the other.
And here's to the rise and the fall of the shutters.
Last night, for what feels like thirty six hours,
they blocked me from walking to the river
and the underpass they built to keep us warm.
Another drink, I may remember more.
This poem is published as part of National Poetry Day 2012, theme: stars.
McGrane's poems have been published in Aesthetica, The Delinquent, and South Bank Poetry as well as in the anthologies city lighthouse (published by tall-lightouse), Split Screen (Red Squirrel Press) and the upcoming 2012 Templar Poetry Anthology, Octopus. McGrane also runs Forest Poets, a Walthamstow-based writing group. This poem is featured in The Robin Hood book (Caparison), an anti-austerity anthology available from The Recusant.
Well Versed is edited by Jody Porter
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