Two Seconds

To Atatiana Koquice Jefferson victim of police murder, this week.  

Two Seconds…

Door was open, as the night was warm,

Neighbour concerned, welfare check from Fort Worth Police,

Was video gaming with young nephew, flashlights in garden,

To her bedroom, check for their safety,

“Put-your-hands-up, put-your-hands-up” BANG!

One shot, 2 seconds, her life is over, guilty of living whilst black.

Sanctioned

Inspired by the state murder of a young mother and her bairn, one of the 130,000+ victims of dwp sanctions. 

Sanctioned

We walked 8 miles, my bairn and I, 

5 minutes late and you sanctioned us, 

No rent, no milk for my bairn, 

8 miles walk home, walk full of fear

Home, top floor, breathing only despair,

Together my bairn and I take a sanctioned leap of despair. 

New years eve

Severe CW for paternal abuse


New Years Eve

That eve of beginnings new, destroyed by forces old,
called by a name that was not my own,
my inner fortress you've broken an is no more,

The chimes mark the midnight hour,
a new year has begun,
I sit deep into the night, reliving each violation, my screams silent,

New years day dawns, sleep yet eludes,
Scrubbed skin all night, still unclean,
Can my new beginning rise with the new years sun?

The grey wolf told me

The grey wolf told me


The grey wolf told me I'd be thrown into darkness,
I'd loose my way and face an evil

The grey wolf told me I'd be tortured in my soul
I'd break and break till nothing was left

The grey wolf told me I'd face my death
Over the embers of fire and iron,

The grey wolf told me I'd survive
battered, scarred a survivor.

The Kind Man

This is based on a conversation with an old friend of my fathers, someone he knew a lot of years ago and who saw only the public face of his abusive self. She called him a kind man. I couldn't respond as I wished due to self preservation, this is my response.

CW - paternal abuse



The Kind Man?

The kind man, they say you are,
A disguise to the darkness of you,

The kind man, who locked me in the loft,
Hours alone with the spiders and the dark,

The kind man, who beat me in the street,
On the floor in a ball feeling each kick in my soul,

The kind man, who held a weapon at my throat,
The dying light of fire embers showing the evil in your eyes,