Words Interrupted

A blemish on the market square

They filmed them
bodies curled in doorways
Cardboard stitched into mattresses,
left in plain sight,
as if they disturbed
the design

Keyboards rattled
from sheltered rooms,
shaking heads
‘Why don’t they just…’
as if lives unravel neatly
as if hardship has a switch.

I read someone say,
in the comments below
‘Send the foreigners back first’
as if kindness has borders,
as if pain need a passport to matter

No one filmed
the scaffolding of absence-
locked doors,
boarded windows
Buildings standing tall and silent,
holding nothing
but dust delay.

West Northampton Council
Spent 13.5 million
reshaping the square
Lifting cobbles laid in the 13th century,
worn smooth by the weight of
passing lives-
ghosts pressed into every surface

Stones laid carefully,
the voices of the market traders
echoing into an empty void

for gatherings
for events
for a better picture-

while buildings stand empty
and they filmed them sleeping
in plain sight

We step around people,
but do not ask questions

How do we hold
empty space
empty hands
in the same town
and not see the connection?

How do we measure worth
in bricks kept safe
or people outside of them?

Judgement is easy.
It costs nothing
to look away and label

Because somewhere between
the boarded buildings
and rough sleepers
is a story
we are not telling

And maybe
that’s the one
that needs to be heard

#homelessness
#northamptontown
#poetrycommunity

Written in response to a recent media coverage and comments about homelessness in Northampton town. Something that made me rage inside so I wrote it down.