The Claim of Malcolm Bennett

Introduction

    BENNETT: I’m a man from the pit,
                                                           the mining village,
    where men have muscles
                                               and children dreams.
    I’m from the shaft,
                                   the darkness of age,
    the gift of my father
                                     generations of rage.
    
    I of the province,
                                the ancient blood.
    I played in the streets
                                         that   our fathers built,
    where the lads hang out
                                            in metal tipped boots
    and soldiers are bred
                                        from the madness of youth.
    
    I grew as this child
                                     in institutions of state,
    unaware of the world,
                                         its injustice and hate,
    where the wolf is so vicious
                                                   when baring its teeth
    and all must make do
                                         as idle rich tyrants bequeath.
    
    I’m a man of the coal,
                                        from a family of need,
    five young mouths
                                    like a nation to feed;
    
    born of the filth
                              the dirt and the squalor,
    born of the factory
                                   the block and the front,
    bred on the violence
                                      the hard-knocks and clubs,
    the fights and the anger
                                             curses and cunt.
    
    How sick of this life
                                      lived day-to-day,
    how tired of the giro –
                                        naught but subsistence pay
    as just keeps life
                                 within my veins,
    a fact ignored
                           by bloody politicians.