A Sonnet of Sonnets, by John Lewis Smith
Sonnet #06: The Acridity of the Factory
The smell from the sulphuric acid plant
Pervades the factory down on Cliff Quay.
I try to be an engineer but can’t.
Nor do I have success with chemistry.
It’s stomping at the jazz club with the girls
And getting drunk on Watneys in the town.
Haphazardly my adulthood unfurls
And not for me the life of cap and gown.
Then up to Corby and a spell in digs.
The massive steel works and the heaps of slag.
I go to ceilidhs, learn some reels and jigs,
Drink whisky chasers, but the work’s a drag.
I get a taste of failure, go back home.
I’m always broke; I’ve got no car or phone.
25th March 2007
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