Steve Sneyd: Nearly Where You Get the Lucky Dip*
sick he said how life imitates damn
experimental fic just as you get
interested really in someone he she it
they swirl off into mist lost track of
change their pub a job elsewhere new
partner whatever or worse still you
wake up morning like some author find
lost interest in them no reason light
gone out notice nose a beak or how
repeat themselves or just meet their
child he said but what really makes me
sick is how ended up like that about
myself and noticed his dog’d finished
doing its bit on halfgrass where cars
park as if was pavement said best get
on that’s enough of that enjoyed chat
if ever run into you again you must
tell me what you think about my thought
Chopped up, breathless, irritated – personal and political protests are often expressed through street art. Steve Sneyd’s words capture the mood far better than my own may ever do. Clearly, street art painters adapt images freely, but not necessarily happily. These young people have a lot to be angry about – commercialisation everywhere, job insecurity, unpredictable landlords, crowded urban spaces, to name but few. Yet, in the midst of these struggles it may be possible to sense passion too – even compassion. Note how Steve Sneyd remains eager to know what his listener thought about his thought. He is not indifferent to that listener. Likewise – visual images may clash with one another. Not all are nice and pleasing. These images may form a single picture when, in addition, there is something connecting them to one another. Deep inside the fire and the fury, a live shared space, often invisible, seems to prevail….. ’if ever run into you again’.
*Published in the poetry magazine: 10th Muse (2004) no. 13, p. 36
Reproduced by Poetry Magazines, Southbank Centre, London
