Graffiti on the Wheelie-Bin

Cherry

By Michael Valentine

Mon, 12 Jan 2015
  • 1832 reads
5 comments
 
Graffiti On The Wheely-Bin
 
Petrol-station flowers and six cans of Red Stripe
The shortest mile has been slovenly wandered once more
And here we drop over the precipice of St. Valentine’s
“Are you looking for business?”
Said a dainty darling in neon-red fishnets
 
I begrudged the question; no, I’m not that sort of boy
The longest while has elapsed since I touched a woman’s warmth
Some nights just let you down and stamp on all your toys
And platitudes are peevish,
Garrulously slapdash, please don’t believe ‘em
 
All the love which still remains
Consistently eludes the opaque and arcane
There’s no romance to be found on these cobbles
Only ridiculous sentimentality for a fantasised Scotland
 
I would be content just to gaze at your drawn curtains
Only for a while, but could I ever look away?
Perhaps Fishnet Girl from town was just brash and clumsy at flirting
Doubtful, she had an air of Strangeways
On her arse were blood, a handprint and a grass-stain
 
Deciding against the cliché I steered clear of your house
The modest smile is repressed and the bright eyes, now coal
No mouse ever went to war; so I’m going to be a mouse
There’s no profundity in my stagger
No malaise (only praise!) for how tactfully you slipped the dagger
 
So, I roamed onward through Britain’s finest criminal province
People daren’t smile, through the high-rise growing pains
Council-house terriers, football tops and sovereigns
A Christian god, it’s agreed, but which one gave you life?
Fight all you please because here he has turned a blind eye
 
Listen to this: A rusty door-hinge chewing nasty grease
It haunts my days and spoils my toxic blood
A pantomime public lynching, I watched in abhorrence from the cheap-seats
The kids treat grammar like a sin
“Qeer AID’S skum”, said the graffiti on his wheelie-bin
Certificate 12
Poem
White Lines and Black Rhymes

Comments

Submitted by celticman on

getting down and dirty with the poetry, bits and pieces mean something to me.  

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

One of those that leads you back to the beginning, slows you down and teaches you how to read again. Magnificent.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Michael Valentine on

Thanks celticman - that's all you can hope for, really; that what means something to me translates at least a little with someone else.

Parson, that's really sweet of you to say, mate. It's basically a list of the grimmer aspects of growing up in the west of Scotland. It's a lot easier to find poetry in the bleakness I think everyone would agree.

Mickey Valentine.

Submitted by Stephen Thom on

brilliant stuff, lovely writing liked the flashes of florid diction used subtly&superbly,contrasted with as well as illuminating the subject matter...lots of standout lines but liked the touching&simple 'I would be content just to gaze at your drawn curtains' in the midst of everything else,and 'a rusty door-hinge chewing nasty grease' was an awesome collection of words, great work,some recognition too :-)

 

Submitted by Michael Valentine on

Oh thank you so much, Stephen - you're a diamond, mate. I pride myself on vocabulary, somewhat. It's probably my strongest hand as a writer (if I do say so myself!). Quite often I'll try and be too verbose and end up losing all direction and rambling away for whole, unnecessary stanzas (it's quite evident in some of my other poems) but I managed to keep a clear route in this one. I still didn't expect it to get a cherry, though, but I'm quite poor at judging whether or not a piece of mine is any good. Thanks for reading and commenting, pal. Always appreciated.

M.S-V