Friday 5 April 2013

NaPoWriMo Day 5 Poem 3 Long Shot Kick De Bucket

My Dad is a 75 year old Jamaican
who lays in bed eating mangoes
with his eyes closed - tasting
his Caribbean youth. He says
no one old forgets what it is like
to be young. Despite the weed,
he has not burned all the holes
in his memory. He has forgotten
most his friends names but blares
music like it is the best company.
He says it is special how a song
heard in 1969, spins a bed
into a bar stall in an East London pub
called 'The Perseverance'

It was here he found out about Steve
throwing himself under a bus,
as a song - Longshot Kick De Bucket
came on the Jukebox and everyone sang
Them wail, them wail, them reel
but they couldn't take the trail
and with warm glasses raised
every voice in the pub cried

and Long Shot - him kick de bucket
Long Shot kick de bucket

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