Poet’s Corner URBAN METRO FREEDOM 28-01-2008 The Stirrer’s poet laureate Brendan Hawthorne muses on the litter-strewn, muck-stained streets of his Black Country neighbourhood. Our urban metro pavements are paved with broken beer bottles thoughtlessly smashed within designated alcohol-free zones Our urban metro pavements are awash with litter falling from over-flowing council bins in recognised litter-free zones Our urban metro pavements are take-away pigeon run feeding stations in non-designated bye-law drop zones Our urban metro pavements are lined in double yellow and fenced in by prohibition signage in car-free pedestrian zones Our urban metro pavements take us past the elderly victims of muggers and along shoplifter rabbit runs before leading us to boarded up ram-raid shop fronts in police-free patrol zones A hot-spot where tape-free videos bleep unheard through the wail of intruder alarms as seen through camera eyes that have no memory or re-call of defining clarity resulting in insufficient evidence Our urban metro pavements are coated with chewing gum and dog excrement occasionally sprinkled with gutter needles in those blue light drug-free zones Sadly corralled by badly-spelt graffiti on monument walls we walk in blinkered silence Our urban metro pavements lead us to failing outdoor market zones where the corrugated roofs of tin-town town-ships are left rattling in the breeze two months down from the re-fit line and a million miles from craftsmanship And yet some of us still need to question whether it’s all down to falling standards or maybe it’s just another perception in the opinion-free zone where people are allowed to wander conscience-free in an environment where underlying trends go unnoticed or ignored and rules roam free from meaning and endorsement Copyright Brendan Hawthorne 2008 |
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