Shock and Disbelief to the System - 1960: A Poem by Victoria Williams

Wednesday 04 November 2015
reading time: min, words
It's Black History Month, so here is one lady's first impression of Nottingham after travelling from Jamaica, in poetic form
alt text
illustration: Natalie Owen
 

When I descended from the plane I saw houses like
Factories, smoke billowing from roof tops,
Basement leading to backyard, cold and bare
Houses lived in by both rich and poor
With signs: no blacks, no dogs, no Irish.
Unbelievable, how could this be?

I lived in winding stairs attics
Leading to silent graveyard places
With cobwebs like hanging baskets of flowers.
Toilets stayed in backyards
Where washing became stiff as buckram,
As cold air penetrated like daggers to the heart.

Dinner is chips on the streets out of newspaper,
Breakfast when milkman left
Unwrapped bread on doorsteps
And dogs and cats
Like children with ice lollies
Descended on them like swarms of bees.

The cold wet weather,
With ice congregating on houses like birds
Perching on trees mocking sunny islands thoughts,
Make life difficult, with lonely, dreary days,                                        
Nights dark as pitch, fog thick as clotted cream,
Paraffin heaters smelling like cow dung
Open floodgates to cold and bronchitis.

Memories of miner’s boots echoing along cobbled roads
As they walked briskly in the cold half-lit dawn
Going down, down, down
Into the belly of the ground
To collect the black diamond, coal,
A must have commodity
To deliver to rich and poor alike.

My motto:
Get a job, work hard, save money
And return home in five years.
Fifty years on and still here
Looking for a pin in a haystack.
I am here to stay, I am here to stay,
After all the shock and disbelief to the system.

We have a favour to ask

LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?

Support LeftLion

Please note, we migrated all recently used accounts to the new site, but you will need to request a password reset

Sign in using

Or using your

Forgot password?

Register an account

Password must be at least 8 characters long, have 1 uppercase, 1 lowercase, 1 number and 1 special character.

Forgotten your password?

Reset your password?

Password must be at least 8 characters long, have 1 uppercase, 1 lowercase, 1 number and 1 special character.