at the bedlington miners’ picnic, 1986
don’t get me wrong like, i’m not averse to a bit of pageantry:
but this was different, no longer a pageant at all, more like
laughing at spastics, or kicking the walking sticks of frail
old ladies for cheap entertainment, the lodge banners from
disbanded collieries, the union jacks, & the branch secretary
from crofton who had never properly learnt the words for
perennial red flag anthems. if the pegswood band had played
hot jazz that year, instead of hymns, it could have been
better, it could have been fun, it would have been easier to
recreate my parents’ tales, of how dad had fallen head over
heels with the pretty miss west sleekburn, who had sported a
bikini against her mother’s wishes, & how attlee had boomed
his ferocious words, when labour men still could, & grandma
had sobbed when they knocked out jerusalem completely
convinced that the lyrics were a prophecy
Page(s) 49
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