On Your Dead Mother’s

Life
Shook my hand
promised once
I had paid off
The company
Demanding payment
Of your debt
That you would pay
Me back
And thanked me
For making it easy
For you
Without a set amount
Or interest
And said I’d changed your life
So you couldn’t
Thank me enough
Until I left the company
We both worked for,
When you changed
your phone,
Address, cancelled
your FB
Account and said you
Hadn’t been paying
Because
your new fiancé
Told you not to,
Giving me a false
contact no.

Now I contemplate ways
For you.

Paul Brookes was poetry performer with “Rats for Love” and his work included in “Rats for Love: The Book”, Bristol Broadsides, 1990. His first chapbook was “The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley”, Dearne Community Arts, 1993. He has read his work on BBC Radio Bristol and had a creative writing workshop for sixth formers broadcast on BBC Radio Five Live. Recently published in “I Am Not A Silent Poet”, “The Beatnik Cowboy”, “Clear Poetry”, “Red Fez”. Much more about Paul Brookes can be found via his web site by clicking here…