Poet
Breaking News and other poems
What if we broke the news? Actually broke the news. Put a brake on rolling news?
So begins the title poem in this collection of insightful, often funny, sometimes uncomfortable, frequently challenging pieces that call us to pause and reflect on events big and small, global and every-day..
Poem for Now
Went on holiday and searched for a bank
Sign on door said branch now closed.
Extended leave presumably.
Phoned the bank to discuss my state
Of confusion around phone banking.
They’re sending it in the post.
She approached the door with a cheque to pay
Found it closed and boarded up.
Nearest branch half a day away.
She stood for a while rooted in disbelief
It was here last month she was sure.
Could she be losing her mind.
Once there were ten in the town
Welcoming cash with conversations
Woven fully in community fabric.
Old she may be, now sacrificed
On the digitisation and profit altar.
By-passed by yet more no sense.
She worries, oh how she worries
For lost routines, lost connection.
Technological bank holiday.
Went on holiday and searched for a bank
Sign on door said branch now closed.
Extended leave presumably.
We still have bank holidays in the UK. And yet, there are no banks anymore, or so it seems.
Summer 2023
