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Friday 17 July 2009

Poem of the Day - Brass In Pocket.

Ten Pence Story

Out of the melting pot, into the mint;
next news I was loose change for a Leeds pimp,
burning a hole in his skin-tight pocket
till he tipped a busker by the precinct.

Not the most ceremonious release
for a fresh faced coin cutting its teeth.
But that's my point: if you're poorly bartered
you're scuppered before you've even started.

My lowest ebb was a seven month spell
spent head down in a wishing well,
half eclipsed by an oxidized tuppence
which impressed me with its green circumference.

When they fished me out I made a few phone calls,
fed a few meters, hung round the pool halls.
I slotted in well, but all that vending
blunted my edges and did my head in.

Once I came within an ace of the end
on the stern of a North Sea Ferry, when
some half-cut, ham-fisted cockney tossed me
up into the air and almost dropped me

and every transaction flashed before me
like a time lapse autobiography.
Now, just the thought of travel by water
lifts the serrations around my border.

Some day I know I'll be bagged up and sent
to that knacker's yard for the over-spent
to be broken, boiled, unmade and replaced,
for my metals to go their separate ways...

which is sad. All coins have dreams. Some castings
from my own batch, I recall, were hatching
an exchange scam on the foreign market
and some inside jobs on one arm bandits.

My own ambition? Well, that was simple:
to be flipped in Wembley's centre circle,
to twist, to turn, to hang like a planet,
to touch down on that emerald carpet.

Those with faith in the system say 'don't quit,
bide your time, if you're worth it, you'll make it.'
But I was robbed, I was badly tendered.
I could have scored. I could have contended.

Taken from Kid

Copyright Simon Armitage.

all done, not a bad haul. i found a cookie, a penny, a ded mouse, and the economee Pictures, Images and Photos

Have you ever heard anyone say, "A bad penny always turns up..."

The proverb, also used allusively in simile and metaphor (see quot. 1766), refers to the predictable, and usually unwelcome, return of a disreputable or prodigal person after some absence.
Like a bad penny it returnd, to me again.
[1766 A. Adams in L. H. Butterfield et al. Adams Family Correspondence (1963) I. 55]
Bring back Darsie?
Little doubt of that—the bad shilling is sure enough to come back again.
[1824 Scott Redgauntlet II. ii.]
Just like as not he'll be coming back one of these days, when he's least wanted. A bad penny is sure to return.
[1884 R. H. Thorpe Fenton Family iii.]
Who's dead, when and what did he die of?
Turn up like a bad penny.
[1922 Joyce Ulysses 149]
‘I miss Bart.’
‘Oh, a bad penny always turns up again.’
[1941 A. Updegraff Hills look Down vi.]
‘Stop worrying. The bad pennies always turn up.’
‘Oh, Adrian, I don't think she's a bad penny, not really.’
[1979 G. Mitchell Mudflats of Dead iii.]

Also related to: wrong-doers...


Simon Armitage! Pictures, Images and Photos

8 comments:

Clippy Mat said...

now I feel sorry for all of the loose change in my closet that I have been saving. They must be so bored, just lying there in that coin tray on the shelf behind the basket full of socks.
I should go and roll them and take 'em to the bank so they can at least see the light of day.
LOL
:-)

Unknown said...

Hello Fhina,

Enjoyed listening to that song again but couldn't have told you the title or group for love nor money!

The poem is great. These narratives read so easily but can't be easy to 'do'! Like clippy, I'll have to see my change in a different light!

Rosaria Williams said...

Bad pennies ah? Well, I bet nobody wants them anymore. And not for the bad luck they bring.

blognut said...

I've been compared to that bad penny that always turns up... more than once, sadly.

I do keep coming back, don't I?

XO

Suldog said...

Fun poem. I especially like the "I could have contended" line, as I just a few nights ago re-watched "On The Waterfront" :-)

Cynthia Pittmann said...

Great Pretenders!!! And those woeful lines:

"I was robbed, I was badly tendered.
I could have scored. I could have contended."

When I'm in a mood, I could/can relate to this...but I hate to be a bad penny so no boohooing here.

Love to you, Ms Fhina!

Saz said...

don't you just want to be Chrissie if you were allowed a day as a rock chick?? she is so cool...and hymn to her is such agreat track, makes me sry.. l love the pretenders..

I wanna be a rock chick,

I wanna be a rock chick,

l CAN sing, I CAN sing!


not

Adlibby said...

now that was a woman of GREAT importance! Love it!

Found your posts on MMM fascinating! I didn't even realize that you were living with terrorists too. ;)

Something I wrote earlier...

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