{"id":2146,"date":"2021-07-06T11:48:08","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T10:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?p=2146"},"modified":"2023-11-12T11:40:54","modified_gmt":"2023-11-12T11:40:54","slug":"30-years-ago-today-my-back-pages-go-mod-and-england-swings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?p=2146","title":{"rendered":"England Swings: Thames Valley Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>No not a reference to Sergeant Pepper that was 20 but out of curiosity here an unseen poem from 1991.<br>&nbsp;Ah, but I was so much older then I&#8217;m younger than that now..<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"340\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/modette.jpg?resize=340%2C500&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2147\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/modette.jpg?w=340&amp;ssl=1 340w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/modette.jpg?resize=204%2C300&amp;ssl=1 204w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 340px) 100vw, 340px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ENGLAND SWINGS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Soho doorway, December &#8217;66<br>sleet melting on daisy-patterned<br>plastic raincoat, seeping to salt lines<br>up purple suede slip-ons<br>Her front teeth bite her bottom lip<br>as she shivers, flicks her fringe,<br>and waits for a Mini-Cooper S<br>to arrive in a spray of slush,<br>Boutique lights flash in chrome wheels<br>splattered with ice, laced with tinsel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Saturday morning, December &#8217;86<br>she stands outside her mum&#8217;s semi<br>as her hubby shifts furniture out.<br>Cascades of bills, snaps, cards<br>fall from a draw into the dustbin.<br>Then a photo of her at 17<br>surfaces from the layers of 20 years.<br>Bobbed hair, raincoat against chequers,<br>she is staring, unwed into space<br>as flecks of snow speck the black lid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another poem from my back pages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\">From an overall collection called<br><a href=\"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?page_id=1540\"><br><strong>Diesel on Gravel 1991<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?page_id=1540\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"920\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/diesellg-1.jpg?resize=640%2C920&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1558\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/diesellg-1.jpg?w=712&amp;ssl=1 712w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/diesellg-1.jpg?resize=209%2C300&amp;ssl=1 209w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/diesellg-1.jpg?resize=676%2C972&amp;ssl=1 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No not a reference to Sergeant Pepper that was 20 but out of curiosity here an unseen poem from 1991.&nbsp;Ah, but I was so much older then I&#8217;m younger than that now.. ENGLAND SWINGS Soho doorway, December &#8217;66sleet melting on daisy-patternedplastic raincoat, seeping to salt linesup purple suede slip-onsHer front teeth bite her bottom lipas&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[104,100,34,33,106,91],"tags":[101,102],"class_list":["post-2146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diesel-on-gravel","category-my-back-pages","category-poem-a-day","category-poetry","category-new-poems","category-working-class-poetry","tag-mod","tag-sixties"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6nhh-yC","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2146"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2905,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146\/revisions\/2905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}