I’ve been asked to write a poem about equality
so, I’m going to write it with this new fountain pen
which I realise, not everyone has access to
whilst I listen to Elgar’s ‘Land of Hope and Glory’
on the radio paid for by an insistent licence fee.
I’m particularly fond of this piece of music;
a cello and I once had the opportunity to be
part of it
until the council house of my childhood abode
insisted maybe, the practice too loud
as Mum cooked dinner and Dad slept
through the day for his night shift
t’put food on the table and pants round my balls.
Equality, you have it, I have it
maybe the trick, unlike an historical cello
in hope and glory, is to not give up
on the practice.
Peter Handley
Peter Handley was born in a small village next to what was Sherwood Forest in the first decade at the beginning of the end of the age of Aquarius. He has been variously described as an arty farty twat and an Indian Oscar award winning actor and writer. He is published in numerous literary journals, trained, amongst other places, at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and continues to tell stories and bullshit in all the right hostelries to promote positive growth all around the world and in his back garden. His first solo exhibition of works on paper is due out in a fancy gallery in Vienna late 2014.