a bullet hole in my stomach and a stone splintered exit wound
(after Open Mike Eagle)
They tore down my auntie’s building,
kicked out her great grandchildren,
stone by stone
this terradome had never known such growing pains.
They put me on a rack,
built a spine
from timber and bone,
so, you might play a melody
from my xylophone ribcage.
The price of development has a human cost-
A bullet hole in my stomach
and a stone splintered exit wound.
The rubble rustles in their pockets-
the doctors who said
I was a threat to the health of progression,
smiling through cavities and
yellowing teeth cut on battlements.
They tore down my auntie’s building,
kicked out her great grandchildren,
kicked out the thieves,
kicked out the cobblers,
mutineers, teachers,
crooked policemen.
The curtain call came tumbling down.
The curtain wall came crumbling down
to the theme of our swansong. Don’t applaud.
Can’t you hear these walls?
Can you hear it?
That’s the sound of them tearing my body down,
stone by stone,
my Jenga home
was pulled apart like the fibres from my flesh.
Can you taste it?
That’s the ash we came from,
the sawdust spilling from the blocks
that built the walls you cannot touch.
Can you see them?
We are the shadows in the Castle Garth,
the chill in the Keep,
can you feel it?
They tore down my auntie’s building,
kicked out her great grandchildren,
stone by stone,
we haunt the place we once called
home.
Can you hear that?
That’s the sound of them tearing my body down.
This poem was commissioned by First Draft and first performed at our Flying Donkeys event at Newcastle Castle as part of our Let The Artists In! project.
Fahad Al-Amoudi performing at our Flying Donkeys event at Newcastle Castle. Photo by Rachel Fernández-Arias
Fahad Al-Amoudi is a spoken word poet who combines striking and powerful writing with a performance style that draws you in to listen closely. He has performed throughout the UK, and with The Poetry Experiment he collides his poetry with music.
Find out more about Fahad: https://www.facebook.com/freeformfahad/
First Draft 