Since You Ask

Carol Ann Duffy, British born 1955

 

 

With the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, Carol Ann Duffy has brought together poets to write in this time of  pandemic

Write where we are Now

https://www2.mmu.ac.uk/write/

 

 

Scunnered, stymied, shafted, shaded,
shat on from a great height, spaffed, spooked,
shit-faced, seething, skewered, sickened,
strung-oot/rattling, sidelined, screwed, sent
         round the twist,

 

dissed, dumped, duped, dismayed,
damaged, banjaxed, buggered, busted,
bloodied, blootered, bollocked, bogged off,
off-piste, pissed off, plonkered, plundered,
pillocked, pillaged,
         pratted, twatted,

 

traumatised, tippexed, trashed, trolled, trumped,
up shit creek, upset, upended,
yammering, yellow-bellied, yukked,
fucked, feart, frit,
         freaked, fraught, frazzled,

queasy, quids-out, quaking, quailing,
zilched, Z-listed, zonked, zapped, zeroed,
jumpy, jerky, jangling, Jeezus,
gobsmacked, gaslit,
         gutted, got at,

 

cornered, certified, crapped on, cursed,
manhandled, mangled, miffed, mugged, mad,
wits’ end, worried, not waving but
rat-arsed, ranting,
         rending, raving,

 

isolated, isolated,
loopy, lippy, locked-up, landlocked,
horrified, hacked-off, hijacked, hurt,
kiboshed, killjoyed,
         knee-capped, knackered,

 

neutered, no-marked, narked, nettled, nulled,
voided, very very very
annoyed, arseholed, anxious, apeshit,
OK, OK, OK. Onwards.

 

 

 

Keep Distance, 2018, oil on canvas, and detail.

Binglin Li, Master of Fine Arts graduate, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia in May 2018