shop soiled staff shook sticky hands
I am a family man, born in Fife, raised in Thanet, and I have been a hippie, a laborer, a professional student, and a Catholic head teacher in Lancashire. I came to writing through the OU and also the WEA courses of Copland Smith.
In the last twenty years I have been very widely published in literary magazines – three hundred and sixty three of my poems in total – including editions of PN Review and Stand, as well as in adult anthologies and in ten anthologies for children. I have won many awards, including First prizes in the Teignmouth,The Barn Owl Trust, the Lancaster Litfest, the Sentinel, and also the Star Magazine humorous poetry competition. Indigo Dreams published a collection of thirty of my recent poems in August 2017.
Riot of Passage
Can’t think of Mother, not without
the cut-price colour of January
and the argy-bargy orgy
for price of a penny off.
Doors were bent wide
by excess might and main,
–
but, calm as a ship’s figurehead,
sweet as a sugar mouse,
sexy in war-paint was Mum,
her skirts a scarlet lifeboat.
I once saw a bundle roll
from a capsized pram –
–
an infant, soon obscured
by a bedlam of stilettos.
Mother dipped and gathered
one-handed (her weaker), placed
the bairn in the knitting wool
between Aruns and Lanarks.
–
Near closing, the storm of farthings
spent itself out on Everything Has to Go,
and Ends of Lines. Elbows were holstered,
shop soiled staff shook sticky hands,
sobs were exchanged.
Mrs Bosco wrestled down the blinds.
Philip Burton, Fife
Did you enjoy this poem? Why not visit Maggie’s website at: Maggie’s Centre Nottingham to find out more about their exceptional work and/or make a donation. Do you have a poem you would like to submit to Voices? Feel free to do so by email at: voicespoetry@outlook.com or via the ‘Contact’ page on this site.
Voices 