Drink v. Drugs (by Mick Imlah)
Drink v. Drugs (by Mick Imlah)
Original Text
Mick Imlah, The Lost Leader (London: Faber and Faber, 2008)
This
poem is reproduced on the Griffin Prize Web Site (from a volume on the 2009 International Shortlist).
1I was worked up about some other matter
2when I saw that phone box off the Talbot Road
3being smashed outwards by someone inside it,
4after closing on Sunday (Sunday’s the day
5they all go mad on crack); which is why
6I didn’t as usual walk by on the other side
7but advanced with a purpose, and as he swivelled
8nonchalant out of the frost, grabbed his lapels,
9and setting him roughly against the railings,
10‘What is it with you,’ I asked him, ‘drugs?’--
11which I knew very well from his vacant expression;
12and after he’d cautioned me weakly
13against tearing his coat, the stoned boy
14answered, matter-of-factly, ‘Yes’--
15and told me which ones, in a Liverpool accent.
16It was here I think I said something stupid
17about rugby v. football, which he ignored,
18rallying rather to call me a prick
19and a Good Citizen, and I thought, never mind,
20I’m still going to call the police.
21But that would have meant myself going into
22the vandalised box, and releasing my hold,
23which maybe he saw, with his pert ‘Go on then’;
24then, something better came into his head,
25that he would phone, since he hadn’t done nothing;
26and moments later he was giving the station
27the lowdown on the guy in a light blue shirt
28and black jeans who’d assaulted him, seeming
29the worse for drink, and accused me of smashing
30the phone box from which he was calling now.
31When in fact I’d begun to warm to the lad--
32who’d flattered my stab at authority, kept
33a lid on the thing; also I couldn’t be sure,
34could I, that he hadn’t been simply clearing away
35glass that was broken already, with strong
36but not violent blows of the phone.
37In any case, when he started to amble off,
38I did nothing to stop him; and when the blue
39light came quietly round the corner I was standing
40alone with nothing to say for myself but my name.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2011