He barely looked up
He barely looked up
An old man
Wrapped up against the cold,
Although it seemed quite warm to me
To go back to
I think he knew,
Smiled to himself
Even as he rolled the crisp new note into a tube
Slipping it down between his sock
And the Chelsea boot
Which must have gone out of fashion
When I was a boy
How did he find them?
He saw me looking
‘Picked them up from the street
After the looting.
This place has never been the same
Since Thatcher’s Britain.’
‘That was close to forty years ago.’
‘Yes but they have long memories
Around here
Nothing to do but stoke up division
No jobs to speak of
In the High Street
Closed down five years ago
Nothing left there now but rubble
It’s not the kids as cause the trouble
They’ve all gone to the city
It’s those of us left behind
To moulder
As we got older
The hope just melted away
Nothing left of it now
But to get drunk on cheap wine
Some people crossed the line
A long time ago
Walked through the gates
Bold as brass
Broke the hearts of the pickets
To be betrayed
For a broken promise
Nobody faired well
No jobs were saved
Some men didn’t work again
Others picked out rotten potatoes
On a production line
In a crisp factory
Until the electricity failed
The European Union
Needed it for themselves
Thank goodness for wind turbines
Safer than working mines
Cleaner too
If you care for such things
When you have time on your hands.’
He laughed again, without humour
‘At least our hands are clean...well mostly
You should see a bunch of old men
Trying to pull flat screens
Out of a broken shop window.’
He broke off to spit and clear his throat
Pulled up the collar on his coat
A Crombie
I wondered where that might have come from
He noticed.
‘Oxfam.
What are you doing here anyway?’
‘I used to live here
When I was a boy
Over there where the new flats
Are going up’
‘They stopped building
When the car plant closed
Land is cheap...see over yonder
Where the shopping centre is now
Once was a slagheap.’
I remembered.
‘Re-designated this whole place
A regeneration zone
I wish that included me’
He laughed so much he began to cough
But didn’t seem to care
Just spat out the phlegm
And looked up
‘You Lancie’s boy?’
I was taken aback
‘Yes how did you know?’
‘You look like him
We worked together in the time office
After the war
And he was always talking about you
A big success story down south
Proud as punch he was.’
I was struck dumb
‘I wish he’d told me instead’
‘Why, you didn’t know?’
‘No... and knowing
Might have made all the difference.’
‘The difference to what?’
‘How long it took me to come back.’