Dry wipe board

Does the GOAT,
Dickensian like,
speak of the
best of times
and of the
worst of times blud?

when
“uneducated" ???
roadmen,
chests and jackets puffa’d up and out
beef-ting fam,
whipping up a
Stormzy
from Croydon- not forecast

and the Feds
swear down
the whole truth and nothing but ...
wagwanning
as they slap down
an ASBO here and there

© Bex Tate

Police hope this embarrassing ‘slang dictionary’ will help them engage with young people

Bex Tate is frustrated with the data driven education system, left behind her teaching job. She now spends her time writing, pondering life and wonderińg what to do next. Writing poetry helps her to try and make sense of the world as well as giving her the chance to rant a bit!!

Once upon a time

Once upon a time, all she could do

was drift her hands along each silent spine

or turn hieroglyph pages like a visitor

lost in the streets of a foreign land,

her forehead a frown of lines –

a message of bewilderment she hoped

others could not read.

Then, like whispers, or baby footsteps,

or leaves dropping like scraps of tissue

kissed by an infitesimal breeze,

shapes on pages birthed sounds on her lips -

each day a new one, a tiny gift –

and in her mind, dragons, heroines,

castles, pirates, the sighs of reunited lovers.

© Fran Hill

Ursula Shepherd: The 88-year-old who has just learnt to read

Fran Hill is a writer and English teacher based in Warwickshire, UK.