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Peckham Voices

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This year the theme for the Parkinson's Art poetry competition was 'empowerment'. I haven't ever really tried poetry but after reading about it, I found myself thinking about empowerment and imagining how that could be expressed in a poem.

My step-dad has discovered an amazing talent for poetry during lockdown and some of the rhythms and ideas of his poems inspired me to give it a try. I also found myself borrowing ideas from an old friend, football team-mate and colleague who writes a birthday verse for each of our group at work every year. Thanks to both those lovely people.

The poem itself probably sounds quite angry which is not like either of the people who inspired me. Specifically, I think I was annoyed about a YouTube advert featuring Nigel Farage earnestly asking "have you noticed how everything is becoming more expensive?" One might reply that, in a lot of ways, it is exactly what experts said would happen after Brexit.

I must admit that my only knowledge of Peckham comes from watching the sitcom 'Only Fools and Horses'. After I had submitted the poem, I thought Del Boy would probably hate my socialist rant. Maybe Rodders would be more sympathetic.

You can read the winning entry and the commended entries on Parkinson's Art. I didn't make that list but I really enjoyed writing it.

Peckham Voices

Where does power come from?
Who says where it passes?
Bestowed by the strong?
Depends what your class is?

We all have the spark
Which we lend to conductors
Beware of the dark
Words of corruptors,

Who blame the neglected,
Tall tales confected,
Attention deflected,
From tax uncollected.

Who does it serve do you reckon
To cry ‘welfare spongers!’
Eton or Peckham?
Suspicion among us.

Divide and conquer,
Innit, Rodney (you plonker)?
The dices are loaded,
By where we’re postcoded.

McGowan defanged,
His song rearranged,
For his fairytale peasants,
To sell Christmas presents.

Our lives are all stories
And stories have power
There’s something in each of us
From Mandela Tower.

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