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John Ash

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crumpsall park has everything

write to your local paper and ask why
is it I have nothing when
crumpsall park has everything?
it has roundabouts
and a basketball-court
where the kids can play football
it has a good view over the meat-pie-factory and
the old asylum down to where
the city centre hovers metallic
like a u.f.o. on the horizon.
it has an obelisk in the centre
and when it is lit up it looks as though
they are having some kind of black mass in there.
I mean Black Mass, not a black mass (like the night)
although they have that in there, too. (They have everything.)
crumpsall park has many fine trees growing on it –
see any trees growing on me? - not in
this universe, not one.
crumpsall park has a special area cordoned-off
for dogs to shit on; whereas
I have no such area designated, and perhaps
that is just what makes me so mad –
my life’s too chaotic -
even the squirrels refuse to gnaw me.
crumpsall park is well appointed with policemen
just waiting for the little kids to set up their
wendy-house on the grass so they can chase them away.
who will ever chase the kids off me?
where’s my sodding wendy-house even?
the point is, my friend, I didn’t want to rent your
mangy room anyway.
proof-of-employment, bollocks.
if you need a reference
phone my last landlord and he’ll tell you just
how that place got burnt down, don’t care.
because
right now I’m going down to sit in crumpsall park –
they say that place has everything.

 

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