HOMECOMING

____________

 

Back from the combatzones

Of the rest of Europe

And patriotic ticker-tape parades,

England's sons

 

Had no homes

To come back to

In the mid-1940s.

 

Military camps

Luxury flats

City hotels

Were abandoned.

Fears of air raids

By Nazi planes

Dropping bombs 

Power outages

Cities blown to the bare bricks

Sent everyone running .

Crisis followed crisis:

Housing shortage.

 

Under nightfall's 

Thick velvety cover, like

An Army battalion onto an enemy fort,

The ex-soldiers of England

Saw abandoned buildings,

Opened them up,

Took them over

And made them their own.

 

Huddling against the wall

In the dead cold

Wasn't an option.

 

Neither was languishing 

For years on a public list, waiting

For the government to hand over a pre-fab cottage.

 

Legal paper

Fictions of "private property" & "leasing"

Never entered the equation

 

When the need for housing 

Was greatest

Right there, right then.

 

 

Military camps

Luxury flats

City hotels

Filled in nicely

With veterans & civilians, 45,000 strong

In the post-war days.

They were better at

Re-organising society 

Than Her Majesty's Kingdom,

As committees & collectives

Ran communal kitchens,

Provided first aid,

Repaired the barracks,

Ran makeshift clinics, 

Opened up potential homes

For fellow dispossessed,

Defended new home-steaders

From the danger

Of ejection

Back to constant wandering 

And instability

Dreaded instability

On the street--

 

England's sons

And Wales

And later, Scotland's 

Made good on a promise 

To themselves:

 

Homes truly fit for heroes.

The homecoming any soldier needs.

_____________________________

W: 4.6.12

 

[ From the book The Mansion: Liberated Zones Inside The Controlled Inner City, Gnashing Teeth Publishing, 2025. ]