Boys From Brisco Mount

Boys from Brisco Mount

were not expected

to be high achievers,

although the brightest

might attend Tech College

and aspire to be fitters

at the biscuit bakery.

According to general opinion,

we came from a long line

of lower-class no-hopers

and were scheduled,

as a matter of course,

to keep with this tradition.

A legend concerning

a hapless native

caught defiling

a helpless ruminant

had led to us all

being labelled

with the same tag

and added to the consensus

of inbred ne’er-do-wells.

Factory grime

was the destiny

of most of us

as we left

the school gates

for the final time,

which was a better deal

than previous generations,

whose destiny

(apart from sheep-shagging)

was trench warfare,

slum housing

and hunger marches.