THE SUMMMERS OF HATE... by Heather Moulson

Arts Richmond

Online - 15 August 2020

Screw you, summer of ’76!
Thanks for such a long July!
Three weeks of 90 degrees!
The misery of youth and
sunburn on my young shoulders.
Bombarded with punk rock, and
a summer job in a chip shop.
Yearning for love while my overalls
stunk of fish! Cheers for that.

And thank you, summer of ’95
Wincing from your brutal heat,
thighs sticky, face like beetroot.
Heavy with child, akin to a
sweaty sodden lump.
Buggered if I was eating that
placenta! Charmless all the way
down to my swollen ankles.
What did I ever do to you?

And bugger you, hot summer of ’03!
Whinging kids, and an empty purse!
Sun streaming into my face like
a torrent, the minute I put on the chips.
Children clinging like a second skin,
studying open doors, desperate for
a twig to move.
My sodden shirt sewn into my skin,
insect bites in the darkest of places.
Why couldn’t you have been like a
proper summer? Like 1976.
They were good days then.

from ABOUT TIME, the 2019 anthology of shortlisted entries from The Roger McGough Poetry Prize. Copies of this Anthology can be purchased for £5 including P&P from Arts Richmond.