Drinking for comfort, f*****g for food

A take on a single mums plight

Four different fathers
a monochrome brood
drinking for comfort
and f*****g for food.
Best before blow jobs
use before shags
payment in polythene
half empty bags.
Laying and lying
but only to self
shop soiled, outdated,
left on the shelf

Reviews

[‘Thoughts In Time..]

What people do sometimes looking for a place to feel loved and belong- sadness as it’s self destruction but each has a path to walk- pray people learn to love themselves no matter where they come from- very direct and full of passion and truth- great words- make people think🌹

[Gee]

Fleetingly perhaps. Thank you

[Sahm Moore]

My fave. I'm not sure ppl catch the 'four different fathers, a monochrome brood' part, but it's absolutely perfect. I'm a fan!

[Gee]

Again thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed reading this. Very much based on my childhood

[Sahm Moore]

I'm sorry for your childhood, then. However.. the 'I am' piece sounds like you've done pretty well for yourself :)

[Gee]

Kids are resilient and at the time because you know no different it was classed as normal.

[Norman 223]

Hard to read, but easy to understand. The luck of birth can govern environment, which ,in turn, can govern behaviour. Those that condemn the loudest, are often the cause of the problem.

[Gee]

Indeed. Cheers Norman

[Lorry]

A unique twist on a not so uncommon situation for many. My teen years were spent on a housing estate with a bit of a bad rep and I saw this and worse on a daily basis. It wasn't all dark skies though, the one thing I do remember is that everyone looked out for each other and knew everyone else's name...Now I couldn't tell you what most of my neighbours looked like if I had a gun to my head. Changed days, in some ways good, in others nothing changes.

[Gee]

Thing is you grow up thinking it's a normal upbringing when it is everything but.
Cheers Lorry

[Annette Pisano-Higley]

"Shop soiled, outdated, left on the shelf"- Killer line, killer poem, killer situation. You nailed it graphically and honestly Gee. Language of the streets perfectly fitting the subject. Great flow and rhyme. Feral mothers trying to survive. "Laying and lying"-scathing, but so real. Brilliant!

[Gee]

This was life in the sixties on the estate we were dragged up on. Many would open their legs, some perhaps to feel wanted, others for financial or gain in other ways. Mum was married to two arseholes ( both left, both are dead ), spawning 6 kids, then a dalliance led to number 7. Her bed made she raised us all single handedly, then adopted one of my nieces and nephews to prevent my sister putting them into care. A special lady.

[Annette Pisano-Higley]

You very certainly had a special mom Gee! And a very hard childhood from the sound of it...Your mom had a generous heart and so do you. God bless.

[.]

Brilliant, Gee!

A very painfully brutal write, full of honesty and tinged with a large dose of reality for some in this existence.

Your tone and the rhyme is just superb. Heck! I didn't even know you could swear on this forum! But the vulgarity of those words just adds to the realism and sense of hopelessness of the subjects in this poem.

Extremely well done!

[Gee]

Cheers Doodley, this was life for quite a few on the estate we grew up on

[Great Aunt Astri]

This poem made me feel really sad. It must be terrible to lose ones self esteem, giving up, and doing self deprecating things. And all for the sake of the children? Or is she beyond caring even for them? It made me feel like calling out to her , "don't despair! keep going."! A very moving little poem you have penned.

[Gee]

Cheers. We grew up on an estate where most families were fatherless and those that stayed were on the most part idle, good for nothing wasters

[Great Aunt Astri]

mmmm, sometimes women are better off without that sort. But I suppose the Mums on the estate got together and were supportive. That would have benefited the children too. You seemed to have survived well. As you said in a comment to another person, to children, their situation, whatever it is, is 'normal' to them, until they grow up and find that it wasn't. But children are very resilient, and many great people have had very difficult childhoods

[Tom]

No happy romance or pretty bunch of flowers for this lady, just another day at the office and it's a hard old station!

Powerful and evocative, superb moving poetry Gee!

[Gee]

A rum childhood Tom...thanks

[Paul Bell]

Some single mothers do a great job. Some slide into the dark ways. Life is just f*****g tough for some. It's the cycle of kids who you hope prosper in the future.
Great write. Raw.

[Gee]

Ours worked herself into the ground. So much so that we were farmed out to kids and foster homes to give her respite care. I make sure my daughter wants for nowt, without her being a brat, and am to her the dad I would have wanted had he had the balls to hang around

[Paul Bell]

You sure had a tough time. Women are definitely tougher than men in those situations. In a way, it made you into the person you are today. No school can teach that.

[Gee]

Life lessons. Kids are very resilient so at the time whatever happened to us was regarded as " normal " as we knew no different. I was always fostered with my elder brother who was a hardy so and so, therefore we never got grief from the household kids. Well, one tried, the brother flattened him and we spent 2 days confined to our rooms. The fella in question became quite a good friend in later years.

[Chase Dylan]

Rhyming spree, here, and four different means to drink the s**t away... Half-empty bags of outdated law... Some things are best left on the shelf, but when that does not work... Shags in the dark always leave us soiled... Well penned, friend...

[Gee]

Cheers Silente

[Einstein Noodle]

"a monochrome brood " ...the contrast is striking!
"left on the shelf " ... is unforgettable ... well said Gee ... you remind me how easy to forego compassion and empathy in place of judgement ... the "mothers" you speak of are perhaps beyond help .. i picture those who are long on the streets ..have taken a helping hand many times only to recoil from lasting effects ...but the children suffer so much more (in my opinion) as innocent ...your poem is street smart ..very hard hitting .. i read some of your reactions to reviews and understand this comes from first hand knowledge and experience ... my heart, with prayers, to you my friend ... kudos to your fire ..which has intensified of late ;) peace and love
E.

[Gee]

When you're a kid you take it all in your stride. As an adult you just want more than you had for your own family. Thanks E

[Einstein Noodle]

how true how true ... we do our best eh!? peace and joy Gee.