For the Tottenham Court Road incident in London, 27 April 2012.
Recession breaks in
grey bar charts in a row fall down
as do computer monitors, file cabinets and screams
from window of sky-high building
like someone threw up after ugly reality;
it is half-clothed, desperate and hopeless
money is expensive
lives and bodies seem to lose value
clad in gas canisters
driven by emptiness and desperation
recession breaks in;
Women in high heels tear-open handbags
for flip-flops,
while men run out and hold emergency doors
roads are cleared, firemen ready
to fight out burning cries in waiting
cries of horror, cries to live, cries to escape
news channels flash red,
unemployed gather around pub TV screens
police telephone lines engaged,
under-25s hold tight strings of hope,
a generation embattled
day after the bar charts,
years after bankruptcy
recession breaks in.
but then there are rains after draught
floods on cracked lands
cherry trees in wild
Olympic rings on street corners;
life, not desperation and despair
eventually bursts forth.
watch out, this 11-year-old
behind quiet glass wall
of an old Windsor restaurant
as he continues to wave to strangers
with explosive smile,
bored as he may be
in company of his father,
waves of hope, waves of belief, waves of future,
calling out for others to join him in.
Sumeet Grover
Sumeet Grover is the founder of Global Poetry, dedicated to creativity, human dignity, dialogue and global citizenship. He is a winner of the Portico Brotherton Open Poetry Prize 2014 and was shortlisted for the Jane Martin Poetry Prize in 2014 & 2015. He has authored three books of poetry: Signals (2017), House Arrest & Disobedience (2015) and Change (2011). Grover is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment.