STREETWISE
The cardboard boxes
the bin-bags
the life of foxes
in posh store
doorways
awakened
in Central London
by the cleaner’s roar
dreaming thinking
I once had a flat
blinking
at the dawn
but I had no job
once I mowed
the rich man’s lawn
on the minimum wage
out sick
no longer engaged
Job Seeker’s Allowance
and rent paid
hardly a life enhance
but in the dry
then before the committee
2015 in this great city
without money
without pity
was I trying hard enough
that zero-hour restaurant
for example
prove to us you seek work
four times a week
through your library
computer
says she
with the purple fingernails
cuter
than Sally Bercow
you’ll find your skills
or you’re off the till
off
six weeks
then a year
food-banks
bleak
rent off
now streetwise
unemployment register
off
head full of words like
kill
chill
shrill
ill
and
nil
somewhere in Oxford Street
competing with the dope-heads
the alcoholic piss-the-beds
any spare change
avoided
like I had the mange
then the law
move along
but where to
just fuck off
where to
anywhere
see if I care
hear me sing
Land of Hope and Glory
for a copper
when I should be singing
Land of Dopes and Tories
I must warn you
anything you say- !
any spare change
Wilson John Haire.
Labour Affairs Magazine 