Owen Gallagher

I Saw a New World Being Assembled

In the tenements

there were workers

who built dreams for others,

singers who got drunk

on rebel songs,

fighters who fought

for themselves

in the workplace

and lost every round.

All were in revolt

against their masters

one way or another.

I saw a new world

being assembled

in a sweatshop, dreamers,

singers, fighters, unfurled

a union flag, voices

were bolted and welded into one.

Owen Gallagher is from Gorbals, Glasgow, and lives in London. His poems have been published widely in the UK, Ireland and abroad. He has awards from The London Arts Board and The Society of Authors. He has won poetry competitions and his poems have been displayed on London buses and in public places in Ireland and on the Listening Wall, Southbank Centre, London at the Poetry International Festival, 2014. His book publications include: Sat Guru Snowman (Peterloo Poets, 2001;04), Tea with the Taliban (2012, Smokestack Books), A Good Enough Love (2015, Salmon Poetry, Ireland), Clydebuilt (Smokestack, 2019), and a children’s book, The Sikh Snowman (Culture Matters, 2020).

Owen Gallagher

Subscribe