Me and My Big Prostate 2
I can see me standing in a continental style urinal in Piccadilly Gardens. (They seem to have come and gone). Nothing will pass save a few drops of scalding dew but the need is assuaged. I am thinking through my strategy to get home, trying to anticipate the need, which I just know will return, by recalling the location of other public conveniences. I make Piccadilly Station. I don’t feel physically unwell but am aware of a suppressed anxiety and end up praying for the next Blackpool train to be on time. The on-board toilet is out of action. I grit my teeth, cross my legs, and sit tight. At Bolton, the platform toilet is closed. It is now after seven and past commuting hour. I feel a resentment rise which will rankle across the coming months. Luckily the cab rank is well serviced and in ten minutes I walk through my front door, run up the stairs, for a relief which amounts to the laboured release of a few more drops of scalding dew. One hand is on the wall steadying myself. I lower my head to see if here’s anything glowing in the toilet bowl. I hear my wife’s voice. “Where’ve you been? I was getting worried about you”.
The Table
The table, says Paolo
Used to be an altar
It was sacramental
Where the body and blood
Was truly shared
It was a confessional
Where all was forgiven
The Prodigal welcomed
Where you came in wanting
And left fulfilled
Where you met in communion
Bitterness laid aside
Differences suspended
Where strangers were welcomed
Where to have was celebrated
And to have not was left at the door
Where we shared and served each other
Where need came before appetite.
The table was strong
It would last a lifetime
It drew us back.
A romantic view perhaps.
Now we eat off our knees
Alone, silently, before a screen.
April 2016
After the Live from Worktown Festival 2015 (see Links) a chance to recharge the batteries. Here Dave Morgan and Kevin Bates perform at Bolton Socialist Club as part of the International Beat Poetry Festival. The event organised and hosted by Scott Devon, included a Skype link with legendary writer/composer David Amram in New York. David added Manchester to his itinerary in November when visiting Britain and it was a great privilege to see and hear him live.
I was asked to chair the Irwell Vallet Sustainable Communities Project in September 2015. Two months later we received a United Nations award for developing community resilience in the face of climate change. On Boxing Day East Salford was inundated by the River Irwell for the first time in 70 years. See how the community responded.
The New Year heralded the start of Live from Worktown's monthly Cabaret night at Bolton Socialist Club, ably hosted by Paul Blackburn. Now we are preparing a third Live from Worktown Festival bid for October. Watch this space.