- makeswordswork
In Leeds
Updated: Jun 13, 2021
It was the best of times…
because my mother’s suffering ended
and I was born…
……in Leeds.
It was the worst of times…
because sugar was rationed and there were no sweets…
……in Leeds.
A hot summer… and a bitter winter
with ice on the windows…
undressing under the eiderdown…
and…
Women still scoured their steps
and hung their washing across the road…
……in Leeds.
Upstairs, on the green and mellow
West Riding bus…
travelling to school with the choleric workers…
…the colliers and the smokers
coughing and spitting phlegm into
smog-stained handkerchiefs…
……going to Leeds.
Through Hunslet, back-to-backs
in rigid rows,
heading for the Quarry Hill bus station…
Those flats… Stalin inspired reticulation
in dour cement
Off the bus…
to race past the market…
Where the Rabbi holds the chicken and prays
whilst the knife shines beneath the light bulb.
Crossing The Headrow
and up to Merrion Street.
No time to gawp at the model kits
in the shop window.
Woodhouse Lane next.
Then school… and I’m
……in Leeds…
Lunchtime…
Off to the Bowling Green
on Woodhouse Moor.
Two pence to hire the woods.
Watch them drift across the green…
towards the little, white jack…
and I’m
……still in Leeds.
It smells…
in Leeds.
Sulphur and coal smog corrupting lungs
Blow your nose on your handkerchief
makes it filthy, like the collar
on your shirt
……in Leeds.
The days of short trousers,
long socks and frozen knees.
Standing out as softies
amongst the rough kids…
They’re bullies by choice…
We’re victims by necessity
I go home bruised,
……from Leeds.
Town Hall Concert.
Julie Felix in a black dress,
turns to her guitar
her hips exposed beneath the material.
I am no longer innocent.
Women become…
desirable
……in Leeds.
Top deck of the bus
to school…
front seat.
Rothwell… by St John the Evangelist
he lies there… on a blanket
smashed by the green and mellow
West Riding bus
……coming from Leeds
Death happens in Leeds.
Death seen for the first time…
aged 13.
Knees fail to work
crying over the unknown man,
there on the blanket.
white-faced
silent and still…
Does that road still bend
by St John the Evangelist?
Are there still the two half-timbered houses
by the Rothwell junction?
Can you still hone skills
on the crown-green,
for 2d a session?
Probably not…
Leeds is clean… now.
The Hunslet steel works?
Gone!
Quarry Hill flats?
Gone!
All now glass and sparkling modernity?
……In Leeds.
Is there still muck on the civic walls?
Do the girls look different still?
Can you have the best fish and chips
At Youngman’s?
three-layers of service the higher you climb.
Taking Susie to the Grand to see The Master Builder
Olivier mesmerises.
……In Leeds
What do I expect?
Years pass and memories change
made elsewhere…
No longer that child…
his carapace shed long ago…
……In Leeds.
Written by JOHN COGAN
Artwork '6-page graphic short story' by SAM HALL