Where I’m From

A family of five in a basement flat

Two rooms, tight, but hearts intact

shared a toilet with the folks next door

The lobby between with a wooden floor

Tin bath dragged beside the fire each week

Heat from the coals and the smoke it did reek

Kids bathed in turn, I was last the last one

Being the youngest isn’t much fun

No cars cluttered this city street

Only kids with scuffed shoes and dancing feet

Boys kicked balls, or battered cans

Girls skipped rope with clapping hands

Tenement blocks, single ends on each floor

Families were crowded with 6 children or more

An area so poor, yet rich in soul

With hearts that mend what fate once stole

From that flat in the city where smoke filled the air

We moved to the suburbs with more room to spare

A house with sitting room and separate kitchen too

Three bedrooms above and even a loo

New school, new friends and a life full of space

With music, football and running a race

I sang in a band, and I found a girl

Life was such fun and my head in a whirl

Time passed by so fast, and it came at a cost

A best friend was gone as my father I lost

With my mother and siblings, we held on tight

Through tears and silence, we found our light

Beneath the earth where the coal is shorn

I apprenticed a trade, as a man I was born

Deep, dark and dusty, where the sun dares not go

Men walk in shadows where the Davy lamps glow

We step into the cage and the ropes they do groan

Three thousand feet down through rock and through stone

The light fades fast as the cold air bites

We drop through the dark into underground nights

Through tunnels and danger, the darkness and dust

To mine the black gold with sweat and with trust

This is the place where strong bonds are made

And the cost of each breath is the silence we’ve paid

One day I was walking down paradise row

I was unemployed and nowhere to go

I went into the army office like a fool I was blind

I took a simple test then I signed the dotted line

Conflicted and numb about what I had just done

Would this be frightening or would it be fun?

The pen left a mark that I couldn’t erase

This was a new life, one I had to face

Goodbye happiness I’m leaving you for now

I’ll return to you someday I don’t know when or how

These were words I etched in a song

But were they honest or were they wrong

More than nine years on, I left the force behind

Armed with experience and a sharpened mind

I found myself with purpose refined

Character and confidence now defined

When I stumbled, I rose without disgrace

Dusted off, kept a smile on my face

Now I walk with purpose, not chasing the past

The lessons I learned are built to last

I hope these words show “Where I’m From”

A place of grit, where strength is won

There’s so much more of that I know

That shaped my soul and helped me grow

This was written after a discussion with members of a writing group, about a technique one of them used, by getting students to describe where they were from