Unclassified - Bulgy Smoking Mum + Spin Cycles I - IV + endpiece

By Ray Schaufeld

Thu, 05 Jun 2014
  • 2350 reads
8 comments
 
When I knew I was expecting
My body told me to stop
Smoking now sickened me.
But we're not all made the same.
 
She's young
Fleshy tattooed arms
Brickie's cleavage bum.
A baby in her buggy
Her huge swelling
Almost ready for pushing out.
 
Demonised 
The Housing Queue Jumper
The Giant Dole-Guzzling Sow
 
She may move in pairs
Or with her Mum.
She does it for safety
To be safer from us.
 
Look! There's one now.
She's come out the charity shop
Where the picture books are twenty-five
And the cuddlies fifty.
 
She's lit up.
Yattering angrily
At her Smartphone
In her local voice.
 
She's not yet eighteen.
She's in everybody's way.
 
SPIN 1
 
Screaming  Echo headline
Five Days in the Royal Clarence
Teenage Benefits Mum £1,000 Bill.
 
Aleesha Cartwright, 17
In the squishy seats
Pushing her buggy with her left hand,
Back and forth, back and forth
To get baby off to sleep,
Sipping a large cappucino
Speaks to the posh-perky suitgirl
With the cutglass voice.
 
'I used to work in Iceland
And my Mum looked after Ryan -John
But she's on medication for her kidney stones.'
'I loved the bath!
The water was roasting.
 
Interview ended
She goes round the back for a fag
With Kyle and Mahmoud from the kitchen.
 
Ben Bradshaw, MP for Exeter informs us
'Appropriate accomodation has now been found.'
 
SPIN II
 
'She's a regular customer in Fur and Feathers Charity Shop
 
'She was in yesterday
She bought that teddy whatsit
Where you take the rattles off
And press the squeaker.
Oh and that Bob the Builder toy
That Chris PAT-tested*.
 
'These girls..
I was twenty-one when we got married
And then we were out in Singapore'.
 
'Yes, know what you mean Betty
Mind you, could happen to anyone.'
 
'Lorraine told her to stop smoking
Said 'if I can do it....'
 
'Shame about her Mum.'
 
'Dead today isn't it
Is it only ten to two?'
 
 
* PAT-tested; electrical goods for sale in charity shops have to be safety-tested by an electrician.
 
SPIN III
 
Paris Street Dole Office
 
Claim rejected, more delay
Angry exit, rainy day
Barges past staring guards
No money, life's hard
Phones boyfriend, he's not caring
Shouts loud, angry swearing
No breakfast, feels ill
No cure for this, no happy pill
Inner shaking, close to crying
Close to stealing, close to lying
Fumbles in her shoulder bag
 
Yes she's found it
                           her last fag!
 
 
SPIN  IV
 
Six week baby check with Health Visitor
 
'She's beautiful, you feeding her yourself?
Terrific weight gain; getting any sleep?
Four hours, that's good; Aleesha how's your health?
Good girl, you're coping - Lily you're so sweet
 
Oh yes! And how's the patches and the gum?
You've stopped, that's very good, you should be proud
Of how you've done. I wish that all our mums
Could do as well as you. I mean it. Now
 
You need something for yourself, so think of you..
You want to go to Uni! Well of course..
Big dreams Aleesha, your babies are so new
Best not to put the cart before the horse.'
 
She leaves, breathes deep, she can put out her rage
Why angry? All she got today was praise.
 
 June 2024 CODA
 
Exeter University
 
Alesha walks in, switches on the powerpoint. She addresses the second year students.
 
'There is a disjunct between our biological maturation and the often conflicting agendas of the consumer society. 'We can have it all.' Well that would be wonderful but we can't, not everything, not all at once, not all of us simultanously.To 'have' implies ownership. Who provides? Who pays? Who profits? If we all 'have' the professional careers we deserve who will do the minimum wage jobs?  Who will stock the shelves at the supermarket so I can buy my groceries? Who will clean this lecture theatre at five o' clock? It is no accident that so many very young women decide to 'have a baby.' Or two. Or three. They now 'have' something, a small person to hold and nurture who they can call their own.
 
We need to deconstruct the many  conflicting messages we receive. How to 'have' a future? The concept itself is strange. Any minute after the present can be called the future. If we postpone parenthood until we 'have a mortgage' 'have a career' 'have a lasting relationship', we may be attempting to build a more secure economic base for ourselves however I would suggest that  we 'have a future' in exactly the same way that the young school-leaver mother on benefits,  smoking her cigarette, talking into her smartphone, her life in public domain because she owns no car and has to inhabit the pavement with her body and her buggy 'has a future'.
 
Authenticity of identity, we shall look at that hedgehog of many spikes next week.'
 
 
Aleesha Cochrane-Cartwright, newly appointed University lecturer has delivered her first lecture. She texts her husband. Tonight her family will go out for a meal. Not the Royal Clarence*. Things change.
 
Is anything real? Whatever...
 
(Sometimes she wonders how her life would be, if she had time to rhyme and studied poetry).
 
 
THE END
 
* In October 2016 The Royal Clarence Hotel burned to the ground due to faulty wiring. Reconstruction is in progress
 
 
 
 

 

Certificate 12
Poem
Elsie's Selection Box
Unclassified

Comments

Submitted by Bee on

Hi Elsie.

I hate to see women smoking whilst pregnant, or around their children when in this day and age most know the harm it can do. Your poem highlights also, the way we can be quick to judge when we see this image. I was one of the lucky ones who listened to my body and knew enough not to smoke, but I remember my gran telling me that in her day, doctors encouraged non smoking mothers to take it up because it would calm them down and that would be good for the baby.

You painted a vivid picture and your poem made me sit up and think. 

Bee

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Thanks for your aware comment, Bee. Smoking is always foolish; I had a four week relapse not long ago which was triggered by finding roll-up tobacco in my house. My daughter is able to smoke on a night out without getting addicted. Muggins here thought 'I'll just have the one!'. I found it easy to stop with the free nicotine patches and gum from my doctor's surgery.

Interesting to learn your gran's memories.            Elsie

Submitted by jeand on

Hi Elsie

This collection of goodies is wonderful. I enjoyed every word of it. And I liked the successful ending for Alesha, as unlikely as it seems. Very clever way to discuss smoking and pregnancy. I was one of the lucky ones who could smoke or not without worrying too much about it as I didn't seem to be at all addicted. My sister smoked heavily all her life including pregnancies until she got cancer at 53.

Jean

Jean Day

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Jean, thanks for reading the lot! Sad to hear of your sister's death from cancer.

I started this as a single poem and because my topic was so straightforward and my woman so young I then added my spin cycles. The ending is unlikely given the ten year time-frame but not impossible   Elsie

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Great this, elsie, and much food for thought.

Loved the original way you structured this with all those spin cycles. 

Smoking and pregnancy sure don't go together, and when I was expecting my two I didn't smoke. Wouldn't have dreamt of it and it does make me very cross when I see expectant mums with a fag in their mouths.  I even saw one woman, the other day, smoking whilst driving, with a car full of kids, and all the windows shut tight.  Madness.  

Tina

 

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Glad you liked this, Tina. You are right they should follow Aleesha. It is easy to stop with patches and gum         Elsie

Submitted by Denzella on

I too was a heavy smoker and tried everything to stop.  Hypnosis, patches, you name it I tried it.  Then I read Alan Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking.  Worked a treat but I remember a time when parents were coming to school for a concert we were told to put an ashtray on every seat.  The teacher had an ashtray on her desk and lit up whenever.  Even the priest used to smoke, but he did try to give it up for Lent.  

MOya

 

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Moya your memories of the teachers, parents and priest smoking illustrate how recently it was socially acceptable. I remember attending a uni tutorial where most students, myself included, smoked and our non-smoking tutor asked us to only have one fag each. Otto I hope your box is aquatic and the weather remain warm. Cheers for reading and commenting                    Elsie