Skyline4Sale

A poem written about 2 years ago, during the occupation of the Kingfield Heath Squat in Birmingham:

Sale! A Sale? There’s Skyline For Sale!

I declare this auction open, let bidding begin!

Do I hear ten thousand, three hundred, half a million, or more?

All the amenities you could ever desire, right at your door

For we specialize in luxury serviced accommodation

Situated slap-bang in the city’s most enviable location

Just see the panoramic view from the umpteenth floor

All the mod cons you should ever desire just open the door

To enjoy the most stylish state-of- the-art furnishings

Signed, Sealed, Delivered, Yours!

Lifted, Shifted, Fitted, Installed…

…For Free?

I’m afraid not Sir/Madam there’s just a small fee

And always will be, so just sit back relax put your feet up on your exclusive leather settee

And watch as we obliterate what remains of your city

Exterminate in a jiffy every network of community

Leave no survivors, leave not a trace

Just need a signature from you

To eradicate half a century’s history

Ere we go m8 were gonna b srsly rollin in it now! Can u imagin d size of d Q

Lining the street right round the block, just seemed too good to be true

Thought Marie as the swarming hoard of buyers, teeth-gnashing, eyes-popping, just gagging

To earn their slice of cut-rate sky surround her as

She gazed up at the towering height of her future home and felt the static in the air by tentative hooks lift up her hair and it was then that she saw the storm clouds gathering high above the open square and sensed the wind current splitting into two three four strands each whirling this way all around her no longer a sea breeze taking her back to sea-side childhood she could so fondly remember but a great whistling gale force gustguustuustuustuustuustuustuust muuk’muuk’muuk’junrakanhurakan ki’impahal kaachkaachkaach!Kall upon the four winds from the four corners of this world awaiting cataclysmic end combine bind together force this second Babel to its knees before the mighty power of the Gods whom see this sky-reacher built too high reaching only the highest impiety blowblowblowblowout the glass Marie saw the gleaming pane caught in the shaft of fleeting sunlight slice through the air like a knife in a motion slower than the time the judges gavel strikes the block shattering the suspended silence the accused trembling in the dock

I swear I din’t know it wur guna catch fire I swear, I fought it wur stone or brick or summat

Really shud ‘av bin too bloody stuopid if u ask me

maykin’ a statue outtur summat flammabul

I in’t no arsonist in’t got the brains or the gear to pull summat like dat off

Wus just messin’ about wid sum matches I nick’d down fine fare supermarket

Liked d’way the flame licks yer ‘and s’pecially ona freezin’ cold nigh’ like that one

‘Ad an argument wid me mum storm’d out d’ouse went into town was walkin’ thru d’square when I saw d’statue

‘Member playing on it as a kid, duckin’ in between the ‘ouses and that factory wid smoke cumin’ out its chimney, so I wuz bored fought I’d see if I still fitti’d round all the nook an’ crannies,

Got bored too quick took out d’matches struck one alight but the bastard burnt me fingurs and I dropp’d I on d’floer,

Next fing I know I’m peggin’ it fast as a can I turn my ‘ed back see the fire blazin’ outur control that woman I ‘member who blew you a kiss outur ‘er ‘and ‘er face was all melted like meltin’ they wuz all meltin’ like a lump ur buttur in a pan dat lady’s lips ‘ad burn’d into a massiv ‘ole look ‘dasif she wur screamin’ at me Yur dads gonna cane you t’night lad! And I dayn answer ‘er cuz I dayn know wot t’say, so I just k’pt runnin’ and runnin’ feelin’ the bak of my froat go all ‘ard an’ dry phlem stikin’ to d’bak o’ ma mouf, wind rushin’ in knee caps bucklin’ heart poundin’ poundin’ poundin’ ma feet treadin’ the pavement slabs dat cracked an’ split open like dare wuz an earthquake or summat all the buildings shook an’ d’bricks fell all arand me I look’d up and saur dem flats I knuw get biggur and tallur wid every step great machines were buildin’ ‘em like I’d nevur seen in ma life and I look’d bak and the square wurnt how it was it wur all white like the marble of d’court floer an’ there were trees an’ columns on every buildin’ look’d dead posh cudn’t believe it wur where I wuz and as I turn’d a corner there was this huge monster with a fousand silver eyes starin’ back at me everyfing around me wuz changin’ so fast I jus’ want’d t’cry want’d to go ‘ome wantid to see ma family so I legg’d it down the underground path and shut ma ize till I was ‘ome sweet ‘ome where I knew all the street names, my mates, my friends, neighbours, everyone else’s business and never your own that’s what my mum would say

Thought I’d leave her alone, couldn’t go home, not just yet, better stay out a bit longer

I’ll go and see my dad, down at the warehouse,

Packing and sorting the boxes from the steel spinner just up the road,

I could just stay in the office or the entrance, talk to his mates who worked on the same line

But as I opened my eyes I didn’t see any sign of the warehouse, or my Dad or his mates

The door was locked the paint had peeled from the sign above

I knocked, but no one answered

So I went round the back and kicked the small screen door down

And saw to my horror the warehouse

In a complete mess, boxes lying everywhere, metal pipes broken from the boards,

Graffiti scrawled up the walls, the check-in clock put forward ten, twenty years forward

And the darkness where the lights had fused, passageways disappearing into gloom

Wasn’t the only thing that had disappeared, was disappearing

Faster than the rate of Capital earning

Mercy was a starling who cried out for her nest

Locked in the eye of the wrecking ball while

Bulldozers clanked behind, baying to topple the cowering walls

But I will stand my ground before the machines, the surging masses, the glass, the burning statues, and gleaming alabaster pillars of a city that never was

Hold my head up to the lofty turrets of plutocrats and see past their ersatz plans

Climb to the peak of tycoon high-rise defying the vengeful gods looking down from the sky

And to all the people far below will I bellow out this cry

For we may speak with words unknown

Minds pitch ideas at different tones

But look, look! Our hands

They are made the same,

Of flesh! Of bone!

So let US rebuild,

Restore, regain

For what we built

We will reclaim!

(2008)