We are starting to collect people’s work for this project.
If you cannot get to a workshop, but want to share your story, your can send it to a special email (see Share Your Story). it can be in any form – a simple story or particular incident you want to share, a poem, rap, spoken word piece and so on. We will share selected works and gather them all for sharing on line, at the exhibition and so on as the project progresses.
Here is an example so far…
Rats
You ask me how I feel?
Well, I have no idea how to answer you!
What do I have left
to share with you like that
when the rats are still here
and my children are afraid?
I have to be strong,
but what does that really mean
when nothing gets done about it?
What promises have not been broken
as the rats still scurry up the stairs?
My neighbour screamed this morning
when she opened her door
and was confronted by a big rat.
She screamed and slammed the door
and now she is too frightened
to leave her home.
But I have seen them everywhere!
One walked along the window ledge
looking in as I started to cook our supper.
It looked at me as if to say
“What are you cooking for me tonight?”
and when I banged the window
it shrugged and slowly wandered past.
The council have made excuses.
They’ve put down bated boxes
on the wrong side of the building
and claimed their job was done
while I still try to kill the vermin
with poison
and boiling water
poured down their holes
into their festering nests below.
How do I feel? Tired? Betrayed?
I feel that my family have no worth
in the eyes of those who should be protecting us.
I feel abandoned
like we’re the vermin in their eyes
and that getting us out
will make their jobs easier in the end….