The first Write Out Loud Poem of the Week in 2018 is ‘Resistance’ by John Short. According to his profile, John spent some years in the south of Europe working in fields and factories and as an English teacher in Spain before settling for a long period in Athens where he began to learn Greek and the six-string bouzouki. These days he divides his time between Liverpool and Barcelona. ‘Resistance’ was first published in the quarterly online poetry magazine Message in a Bottle.

 

 

RESISTANCE

by John Short 

 

 

We used to raid the freezer

in that dirty garage but cement

and dust made him cough.

 

His mother was a puritan;

he'd sniff and splutter when upset,

dance defiant on the car roof

then run off to town

giving her two fingers.

 

Winter mornings across ice,

spitting steamy gobs

through a face-hole in wool

with pale knees shivering

out of coarse grey socks

and after he died

the school doctor said

I'd developed a resistance.

 

Wouldn't need that second jab

like all the rest of them.