on the wall

Confident as an evangelista at the chapel door
bold as brass a governmentn poster
proclaiming ‘Levelling up is here’
as if Christ had risen in FY1
where marked-down stickered stock
not quite stale bread and bruised fruit
sells quicker than hot cakes
where houses are boarded up with metal sheets
rows of homes compulsory purchased
abandoned police station and courts

CCTV on every corner
collecting evidence of all that’s gone wrong
taken a wrong turn, the odd real wrong un
stops nothing happening
because nothing is what’s happening

all those cameras witness
the continuing decline of a town
built on the disposable income of mill workers and miners
whose people proved disposable
as a deleted spreadsheet
when all the dirty work was done

this is Lancs Vegas
which meets the special needs
of residents of West Derby, or Blackburn
who have saved up for a night on the town
cocaine is on the menu with vodka, crisps and beer
taken on the train just after ten AM
by the stag party boozers in single-use fancy dress
by the lads declining football at Ewood Park
to go on a sesh

in the pub, where the DJ wears a basketball vest
all his records are from passed years
when there were jobs with prospects
and burning off spare pounds was easily done
but now all that remains are often-hit singles
Unready unsteady gone

~

CLP 12/03/2024