Carla Mellor (British Working Class Poetry)

Carla Mellor is poet from the North of England who writes 'poetry for the people'; accessible, down to earth, and relatable poems for the everyday.

​Carla has worked on numerous commissions, including some for the BBC, and her debut poetry collection SCRAPS was published by Wrecking Ball Press in 2021.

 

We Were

We were born
From pits and mills
Our Kwik Save groceries
Declared no frills

We were raised to graft
Not dream
To push it down
And not to scream

Or cry or waver
Or to ever lose face
To stay in our lanes
And know our place

We were raised to try
And blend in
To not make a fuss and
Take it all on the chin

A broken system for
A sub-par education
No encouragement of
Two way communication

Even the names in our school shirts
Were never our own
Passed down from those
Who'd recently outgrown

School uniforms
But not uniformity
Just moved on instead to
Some other conformity

Like a factory floor
Or a supermarket till
Or a desk in an office
Or a fast food grill

Conditioned from the start
To think this is enough
But where is the joy eh?
And where is the love?

 

 

Silver spoon 

I make my own seat at the table
And take it
I pick up the silver spoon
Not made for my mouth
Look at what's been handed to me
On a plate
And find it empty
Reach instead for my glass
Half empty
Half full

 

VHS tapes 

You bring out a box
Of VHS tapes
And I ask about the home movies
Dad made of me as a kid
In black and gold cases
That looked like books
You tell me you threw them out and
In the same sentence say
"I kept all the Disney ones,
I thought they might be worth something"
I bite my tongue

It tastes like

childhood

---

Setu, September 2023 :: British Working Class Poetry