rant

where did the rot set in? standing in a queue in the south & ma basket - 5 quid something. i hold out a fiver, fumble for change, wallet open. the queue behind issue grievance in long-long vowels at ma cackhandedness. checkout operator reaches into ma wallet, lifts out tenner, she lifts it out. throws change at us, NEXT, she shouts NEXT. this city has a world-famous press. its own literary map. literary festival. fuck this. strip to the bone. strip to the bone. trying ma keys & finding they dont fit anymore. worse: the terrace has been walled up, bricks where doors should be & by then the 3AM whiskeys talking over & above the deep bass throbbing ov sly & robbie, a regular softcore surging thru headphones, move ma hips, ma lips, take a mouthful ov bushmills, a lighter, gob fire. spark trails ov fuel to the word-kindling. turn volume up & walk out, south-burning

1st recorded use ov NORTH , beowulf. north: clagging the fresh blade. old english & on to low german, romance - the north-word spread southerly. to the left - its origins. face the rising sun & pray. (keep the right at bay.) north as foundry ov this (is)land - forging language, history, industry - an alternative trinity. dont believe in praying, turn, follow the sun, ma road home. north is the new cool, or was, or shall be, maybe. time was the A66 was ma road out but now maps screaming & this folded catalyst ov contour, ov rib, ov artery expects us to navigate circle & ... & the A66’s ma road home, & its the new route 66, & a road-maps the new route-map & a route-maps the new blueprint, & north ennt found in any thesaurus i’ve looked in: north-bound / up-north / fly north / northerly / northerner / northern-most. top ov / above the equator / rich countries ov the world. who decided up was up & down was globally ... expendable? north words / northwards / north moors / northern lights / kindnesses / stereotypes / northern territories / north pole/ north poles / true north / magnetic north. some day its gonna flip & then? . . . whats the betting north still ennt in thesaurus yu look in? after carlisle its downhill all the way ...

north is more than that legendary 1st act ov railway. more than ex-pits, ex-steel. more than hoodie crows or sieges ov wigan pier. more than class not claaaas, more than scones not scownes, more than mams not mums. north is more than the high-level bridge or the winking-eye bridge or tom paines sunderland bridge or middlesbroughs transporter bridge. north is more than an imaginary font, is more than a cultural strategy, is more than collecting the deluxe set ov pendle witches. we are more than flat-cap morrison supermarkets, happy heritage museums baking bread à la ‘30’s, more than pencil factories, professional northern poets lining out, or wandering lonely as ... now foot&mouth risk-assessments done. we are more than europes largest chemical works, biggest reservoir or the longest sliproads - allegedly. we are more than. more than short-skirts shivering in the freeze ov the bigg market or chip-on-shoulder canal-sitting ferret-wranglers, more than the liverpool triangle: manufacture, sugar & ... oh yeah, slavery. more than saturday nights/sunday mornings tasting ov honey, blue plaques reading this is where branwell bought the drugs which contributed to his death. NORTH is more than ridley scott landscapes, plaths grave, worlds oldest chippie, & tho blackpool rock may be words to the core, we are beyond, beyond the long-distance lonelinesses ov ... tom leonard so right challenging ‘the oxford dictionary ov the english language’, changing the to AN ... close-read THAT. we are so beyond YR southern wank-sonneteer appointed laureate cos our little tony worried so on how lesbians might play in middle-england. education, edge-yu-‘kay-shun - edge-yu- ... we are beyond yr english, yr literature, yr battle ov britain leg-spinners, spinach sunday popeyes strolling the green, the common, the uncommon, the hampstead kind. beyond yr pebble-dash semi-detached plucky underdogs crying hurrah for saint george & other borrowed patrons raising another warm imperial pint to we are all midlands now. past thunderball, pass cheap lightning, thru un-chocolate, endless replays ov the bill, declining haddock & the neon ov multiplex: we will fight yu in the working mens clubs, down the co-ops, in the vowel-libraries ... englands last wild(er)ness? or the meniscus beyond yr games ov core & periphery? we are our own small vocabulary breaking genst interstices where we are weighed & worked. bureaucrats ov art we speak for the tongue-torn, forget the pages ov supply & demand. DEMAND

where yu from? originally? place ov birth? date ov birth? occupation? mothers maiden name? yr GP? which team d’ya support? distinguishing features? theres tattoos ov fish up ma left, ma writing, arm. longing for ‘em over a decade before daring to mark ma skin. anonymity, yu see. anonymity yu know. slipping on thru in a decade ripped to its gills. less to ID, to tie us down. but how i wanted ma skin designed, marked, inked &. skinned. tats were done UP THERE toward the top ov maps, even road signs gave up on ... & the north. everyone admires the artistry. such colours, such needle-work, such a fine line. aye. its a fine line between ... its crossing the great divide. have to spell it out do i? distinguishing features: any? maiden name/s? occupation. birthplace. class consciousness? co-ordinates please. are we there yet, are we? & where yu from? originally, like ...