New sofa
You can buy NEW clothes at Nico
New T-shirt
Golden Touch.docx
Golden Touch
It’s my wedding anniversary
Ari is cutting my hair
“To make you look younger”
He says
We guess each other’s age
A trick he’s pretty good at
We talk about daughters
Sons
Families
How he goes back every year
When he can
To northern Iran
But really his family’s here now
Round the houses in Brum
From a young age
Now his home is Dudley
Four years in the shop
Cutting
Blending
Trimming
The heat from the hair dryer
Beats the sweepings to the floor and
I escape for twenty minutes
In the stories
In the swift hands
The mirrors
Posters from a bygone age
Product on the shelves
The smell of wax and leather
Scissors sweep over the comb and
I learn that the skills are hard taught
From the first time with the razor
To the years later
Efficient
Precise
Art in my eyes
Soon his brother will join him
From Manchester
Where he’s currently learning
To catch up
The future is all about the family and
I hope the shop is still here
For when his son
Picks up the scissors
For the first time
Thanks for the haircut Ari
It took years off me
Cheap modern infill
New barriers
Provision.docx
Provision
I invite you to stand in my shoes
In the space between dark and light
To imagine a room laid bare
Where you sleep in the bath
In the clothes you wear every day
Because you don’t have a bed or
Even a mattress on the floor
To rest your tired frame.
You are in crisis
Slipped through the cracks It doesn’t matter how or why Just that you are here
Needing help
Needing compassion
Practical support
To get back on your feet
To feel cared for
Provided for
Prayers answered.
I sit here listening to Blur
On the CD player I have just bought from Provision House
A beacon-topped Aladdin’s cave of treasures
That occupies a space right opposite
It’s higher calling
Old Co-op
Old shoe shop
New lease of life
For this art-deco giant
Three floors of stepping back in time
Down history rich stairs
Through formica inlaid doors
Its belly stuffed with
Furniture and bedding
Tables and lamps
Wardrobes and kitchenware
The things that we take for granted
Destined for those that have nothing
Absolutely nothing
A lifeline.
In the shop I can still buy a pair of shoes
Anything an old department store may well have stocked
Ironic I feel.
They save the sleeping bags
To hand to homeless folk
Health-packs and new socks
Whatever helps.
The Food Club caters for those
That need to feed themselves
Their families
On budgets stretched to breaking
They mind the gap that governments should fill
By remembering that everybody counts Black Country rules.
Kim chats to a woman
Buying sticker-books for her granddaughter
Laughter slips through this conversation
Two books for a pound and you know
The girl will have a fun filled afternoon.
I ask about the future
Plans for expansion
Rooms to hire
Office space
Training programmes on their way
Perhaps a life for the room upstairs and I see progress
New from old
Right from wrong.
So, step through this door and lend a hand
To those that need it more than
You and I will ever understand.
NEW broom at A&M
Ramsey's.docx
Ramsey’s
Wedged between G P Footwear and the Dental Surgery
Set back in the shadows under the circular cross
Behind the overspill of colour and dazzle
You will find Ramsey’s shop
Cornucopia of ladies fashion
Shoes
Handbags and
Accessories
Born out of West Brom clearance
Been six years grafting
Stretching a profit
Out of lycra and cotton
Cheaper than the exact same jeans
You will find in River Island or H&M
But people still like to haggle for
A pound off here
A fiver there
Ramsey is waiting
Waiting for the people to return
Waiting for Covid to subside
Waiting for the coats to fly
The joggers to shift gear
Blouses to find a new lease of life
So that the drive from Oldbury
Six days a week
Means more than just petrol in the tank
Wasted hours
Asking him about the future
Brings no sugar coating
Of what needs to change
More advertising please
Less traffic down the road
More foot-flow up this end
Where Ramsey offers
Cheap and cheerful
In all the colours of the rainbow
His rails rally already
Outside the shop
Where he would like to see
A revolution
People stop to pass the time though
To talk around it
Time for a change
One way or another
Time for a change
Sooner rather than later
While Ramsey soldiers on
Filling the street with colour
The sun glinting off
A nicely priced
Must have
Subway.docx
Subway
Here, it’s all about the brand.
Green and yellow
Flashes of black
As staff move quickly to
Make subs
6 inch
Foot long
In the lunchtime rush
It’s all go, go, go.
Here, it’s all about the image.
New York subways
Map the walls
Alongside
Legends
Heroes
Iconics
Classics
Not names I would associate
With sandwiches
But to be fair I am not the target here
Too old by a country mile.
Here, it’s all about immediacy
Driven by technology
Attractive to young minds
Thumbs scroll over phones
To place orders
To make payments
To text their mate, who’s
Sat right next to them
Phones, phones, phones
As the Deliveroo driver
Double parks across the street
To pick up a meal deal
As ovens ping and
Cookies slide off trays and
A student picks and goes
No desire to sit in or
Wait a while.
Here, it’s all about speed and
It is busy.
A boy in a boiler suit
Made for a man
Jokes with his mate
He can’t decide what to order
There’s too much choice
He doesn’t know what he wants
He needs inspiration and
The counter guy offers him help
Bread style
Filling
Extra cheese
Drink and a cookie.
His mate ribs him
For getting double Jalapenos
But he doesn’t care.
Here, it’s all about the future
Contactless
A space in which a new generation move
Transactional
The model of a brave new world
Phone app ordering
Because this is what some people want
Safe
Easy
Quick
Convenient
Just because it’s not for me
Doesn’t make it wrong and
Judging by the queue at the door
They’re obviously doing something right.
I leave as another delivery
Heads out the door.
Boilersuit boy is making his way down the High Street
Back to college.
I’m sure he’ll be back tomorrow
Grateful for the help with his order.
Maybe there are new cars
Extrapersonnel is for rent - so there might be a NEW shop comeing
New use for cars — As part of pedestrianisation we would like to suggest a memorial of sorts to cars. The feature would sit in the middle of the High Street and would consist of an old out-of-use car, being used as a planter and being filled with plants. This gesture symbolises the movement of the High Street’s priorities shifting from the automobile to plants, people and food.
New matress