Ribbons

Yay! It's a record breaker! A woman in Newcastle has had seventeen children taken away from her
by the social services. She's been popping them out over the last 30
years – each one a gift from her to the tax payer. She must have been almost continously pregnant for the entire time. Presumably too thick to know about birth control. Too dense to bring her kids up properly. How do we dissuade these people from breeding?

(Rod Liddle in The Sun 16^th June 2016)

 

Ribbons

She's been popping them out for thirty odd years

She's out in the street, gone

and her feet are cut to ribbons.

No, she wouldn't listen.

They said put your shoes on, you'll cut your feet.

Put your coat on, you'll catch your death.

 

She went down the corner shop and fell through the cracks

You see, the grating was loose – all rusted away

She swam in the sewer

up half the night weaving baskets

sending them down stream

she filled seventeen baskets with a fleshy little gem

with mercury for eyes.

A scrap of ribbon for each of their toes

in case she ever saw them in the street.

The Social sit on the shore receiving the tide

assessing capacity and testing their weight.

 

She's been fixing and fasting

Pin-pricking the night

Waiting.

She sits on the bus

She puts the kettle on

She runs a bath – lets it go cold

She wakes around noon

She needs to piss.

She watches Jeremy Kyle give the result of the DNA test

The TVs too loud,

next door's kids are shrieking again

The flat's empty

The meter's down to it's last quid.

So she goes walking, circling old streets

her hands make little fists

and there is no place to set down.

 

They've drunk the calcium from her teeth

her smile crumples under her chin

her eyes slip deeper into her head

as the face around them swells purple

her ribs are cracked

once, twice every week.

 

It's Christmas and she stops at a window

The Virgin and Child in plump embrace

coloured lights warming their cheeks.

She spots a dogend on the ground,

stoops to take the gift

her bones creak

She bites down on her tongue -

the waters have broken.

It's a record breaker

and she cries out for her mother.