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).
thistles stretch their prickly arms afar
thistles stretch their prickly arms afar
Militant Thistles