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Gutter rat By jfarrell
Gutter rat
By jfarrell
Born in the gutter,
Drunk, violent parents,
On a council estate,
Stealing next door’s electricity…
How far from the sewers do you expect me to rise?
I dragged myself from the excrement,
Covered in bruises,
Both outside and in;
Took that ‘greasy pole’ in both hands
And pulled myself up.
After a very thorough scrubbing up and hot wash,
I got myself through college,
Into a career;
Even to the dizzying heights of
‘Acting-Deputy-Officer-in-Charge’.
However hard you scrub, however hot the wash,
The stench of the gutter, the sewers,
Stays with you.
Everyone can smell the waste
The rot.
And what lives in the rot
Has been eating away at me,
My whole life.
Rat. Rodent. Vermin.
I have always been a gutter rat.
A parasite.
