apropos of nothing

only because it's such a great poem, written speedily and with great venom towards an ex-housemate of mine from heady days as a placement student at The Royal Oldham Hospital...

Worth Repeating

I loathe and despise you
Never ever said I liked you
See what's bad
and what's worse
is that sadness inside you

I just can't understand you
There's no-one quite like you

I dislike you intensely
I intensely dislike you


November 1992

until writing the above paragraph, i've not given Oldham much thought over the last 10 years or so. looking back it (or the 1992 version of it) wouldn't be the kind of place i'd like to live now, but i met some great people - some of whom i'm still infrequently in touch with - and learnt plenty about myself and the future career i was about to blunder into. basically, if i'd never been to Oldham, i'd have never become a web-developer, or gone to London, or met my wife, or had my kids. Well, i still may have done all those things, but life would definitely have been different, so for Oldham (and the hospital) i suppose i am very grateful.

although you wouldn't have thought so reading the following, written after experiencing small-town mentality first hand only weeks after arriving...

High Stools

Sit on high stools
A station above me.
Surrounded by fools,
I know you don't love me.

Be still my heart,
Control all my fears;
I 'ant missed a dart
In thirty-odd years.

I think that I'll fly
To try and avoid them.
Smile while you die
and 'Welcome to Oldham'.


October 1992