24-hour crisps cost more than £2

Gold cherry

By JupiterMoon

Sat, 25 Jan 2025
  • 205 reads
6 comments
 

24-hour crisps cost more than £2

 

each door is different

but each reminds me

how exhausted i am

 

my bicycle seat is worn

but can still bruise –

so many spiteful kerbs

 

there are times

i can’t feel my hands

too cold for snow

too cold for tears

 

i have been rained on

more times

than i have been held

soaked under the skin

bones sodden

damp in my soul

 

other times

my whole body sweats

i don’t burn

i drip regrets –

don’t mean

to blur your receipt

 

often i am laden like a packhorse

bent double by biscuits

ice cream and Haribo

i have been called packhorse

been called mule

almost as often as immigrant

you think the sound of the door closing

means i can’t hear –

or you don’t

 

mostly

i ride out light

and frequent

87 trips is my record

but i am not permitted

to fit in

have letters

that say i can’t

 

when i am paid

two daughters

a container ride away

can eat

share a teddy bear

 

i am paid badly

because i am the one on the bike

and you are not

made lesser

for bringing more crisps

to warm houses

 

i sleep in a cellar

with five other men

dreaming in five different tongues

and still it isn’t warm

Certificate U
Poem
Unclassified

Comments

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

A very powerful and moving message, I hope this one gets the reads it deserves. Thank you Jupiter

 

Submitted by airyfairy on

Great poem, Jupiter. There are so many riders in my area, and and I know they get appalling abuse sometimes. Some people seem to just view them as extensions of the bike.

Submitted by airyfairy on

This is our very moving Facebook, X and Bluesky Pick of the Day. Please do share.

Picture by Groupe Novea, free to use at Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coursier-velo2.jpg

Submitted by Starfish Girl on

Words from the heart, so beautifully (and tragically) put. We so often take advantage of these riders never giving a thought to what lies behind.

Is it a job we would choose to do if there was no alternative.

Submitted by queen beatle on

This is such a raw, insightful piece. The formatting really emphasises that central feeling of exhaustion; the motif of temperature, along with the sensory interplay between sweat, tears, snow and rain, make the poem so vivid and impactful. Well deserving of pick of the day

 

Submitted by Jane Hyphen on

Absurd that this is happening. Never used these guys, never will. Their lives at risk making dangerous trips to deliver expensive, mostly unhealthy food on low wages. Thank you for highlighting their trials in this poem.