Wednesday, 28 April 2010

song from the coal box

Another small poem for those engaged in the uncertain quest for their daily toke.


song from the coal box

those with the cranberry-eyes
are those with holes
in their crabshells
unable to sleep on their clothes-lines

they came first
through the sidedoors

were undipped in the fonts
at the front

we've shoed our own mules
and sharn't hear the cram!


consonant-
chokers
have keys to the biscuits
and teas

another pull on the bottle
and we'll horsechant our songs
for short
or long as we might

and with an eye to the chance
we'll go on the scran
and not give a shuck
if we're tight
_______
gw 2010

3 comments:

  1. I'm not sure I understand it but I like it. Hang on, I'm a right one to talk :)

    I looked to see what meanings I could find for some of the words on the net. Scran - navy slang for grub. Didn't know. "Scran spanners" - knife and fork.

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  2. Oh, and did you see the BBC programme "Beautiful Minds: Jocelyn Bell Burnell?" Can you get BBC iPlayer where you are? It had an astronomical twist (she discovered pulsars although the bloke who just happened to run her dept got the nobel prize for it!) so I though it might be down your street. iPlayer says it's got just one day left before it expires. (I've just blogged about it too).

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  3. Dominic,
    Yes, 'scran' is as you say 'grub' and therefore 'to go the scran' is to go hunting for food, in this case by searching in litter bins or in waste bins behind supermarkets etc. Do you know in some EU cities 40%-50% of supermarket bread is unsold! I missed Beautiful Minds but I'll check your blog.

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