A chance meeting gave me another dimension to our politicians’ crusade against welfare expenditure.
PLEASE CLICK ON THE ARROW BUTTON ABOVE TO HEAR THIS POEM.
I find it difficult to socialise when undressed.
Body image, lack of calcium when very young,
the dislike of goat’s milk curving my spine.
I adjusted my towel, she seemed determined to talk.
First the cold sauna then the steam room’s dirty door,
she would complain discreetly, because the staff were good to her,
but being disabled with a reduced immune system
the dirt on the door was important .
I could have made a non-committed grunt
instead I praised her considerate actions,
and thus the moment of evasion passed.
Words came faster now, with occasional repetition,
to enforce the importance of the point ;
Mother’s early death, whilst she sat GCE’s –
the list of her results impressive.
With the detail in recall I knew this was cathartic.
An alluded violent act by a much older man,
who lives near her still, destabilised her,
the implication was he didn’t ‘go all the way’
— but I now knew I had to.
As the afflictions unrolled:
Bi-polarism, arthritis, obesity, a very ill husband,
an autistic child, seriously reduced finances;
retirement, a pension plan that failed,
(with detailed figures and tax computation),
the Terror was revealed.
Recalling a recent summons to ‘Benefit re-assessment’,
fear agitated her eyes, and thinned her pale lips
their precarious lives could crash to succour ‘welfare saving’.
She had been saved — fifteen years before, a born again Christian.
This confession brought a calmness to her face
I would not touch with words, and we parted in silence.
