Christopher Flaherty Poet Free verse

Cooper Clarke Back Beat

So house proud
Yet nowt inside
This Terrace house
But family

Mum outside
Dressed up in her pinny
Gabby Anny
Gossiping over washing line
With nosy nextdoor neighbor

Proudly polishing
The front door step
Sweeping nothing up
Using vinegar and newspaper
To shine the windows pristine clean

Just before Dad comes home
After he has been the pub
Expecting his Tea placed on the table

While kids are out gleefully a playing
From dawn until sunset 
So as not get under mother's foot
And expect a clip around the ear

And come Saturday
Whence I and "R"-Kid meet up
For a bevy before the game
We act as paperboy deliverers
So Dad can pick 
And give us his betting slip
To wager on the G,Gee's

Then 4 or 5 pint's well oiled later
We stumble through the turnstile
To win draw or loose 
Always leaving vocally hoarse

To once again quench our thirst
In the pub with the shortest que
Until however many pints later

We begin the long hard journey home
Hailing any taxi willing to pick us up
In our weaving drunken state
Mixed kebab and soggy chips in hand
Condiments smudged all across our face

This a day back in the life
Of the past working class
At work and play
On any given day
Street or city

Predominantly
Up Industrial North
Where as the saying goes

By Eck it's Grimm up there

Why on earth would anyone

Wish or want to live there
in the 1st place

Unless you are surrounded by
the sense of community of
these people

And the witty sardonic caustic
black sense of humor unlike
anything other in the world

That elevates the poor to the
healthiest of all

As love and laughter is without
a shadow of a doubt the
best medicine in the world

And even better than that it
costs little or nothing at all

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