Scribbles

Bill Mc Kay saw him first, Westminster squeaky.
His ironic Scottish brogues announced him through the mist.
The drum of his shoes tickling the cobbles.
High street would never be so empty again.
Black comes through grey first,
As a jigging undertaker,
Stewed on wake wine.
That spittled morn’ I’ll no forget.
The wind twirls my hair, scuffs my eyelashes,
As freshness and time heal.

On the day, the day when Jim Baxter wis pit foreman nae mare,
It spread quicker than coal dust through grandpas lungs.
” Ach its a joke, they widnae dare ” was Macs proclaim.
” Na they widnae ” was echoed as his lamp swung,
Twinkling the despair shouting from every mans eye.
Rab Cairney showed me the photo of Fiona,
Sweet and innocent in her Gala Queens gown.
He stuffed it back into his wallet tight against the tick book,
The banker for the wee girls tears of joy.

A Sheffield chain stared unblinkingly at the huddle.
Worshippers shocked as if Gods name was Darwin.
Me ?. I ran fast, racing my heartbeat, dancing, living.
Immersed my face in a mountain stream and screamed.
I took on health as a long lost prodigal son,
Like a sixpence on a miners arse I stood out.
Unions uttered illiterate, primitive socialist war cries.
Women dug nails into the kids belts,
Notching every week poverty into the leather,
High street would never be so full again.

Granville Smythe stood and stared, unblinkingly,
Like some hero steeped in Cartland romance.
Animals should be beaten,
Whipped to obedience was his justification.
Spit and hatred reverberated with boo’s
” You have become surplus to requirement “
He smiled as he delivered the news.
I looked and I cried,
As pride and arrogance allowed him no reaction.

I saw something, perhaps history that day.
Freedom and finance argued, hypocrites in working life.
Through years I lost all.
Fathers father, father and mother on black gold.
Now the grass is greener, the roughness in me gone.
I love butterflies and the Thatcher clan.
Finally my jailers opened the door,
They gave me my home, where I can roam.
Long live PITPONYS.