Poem - ' I always though I'd live ...' by Kevin Higgins

 

I always thought I’d live to learn how to swim, do the backward butterfly to Olympic standard

and see trickle-down economics deliver at least one, albeit slightly polluted drop.

I always thought I’d live to learn how to drive, win at least one Grand Prix motor racing championship

and see the Democrats legislate for free universal health care.

I always thought I’d live to tidy the books off the study floor

and see fascists give up stabbing black boys at bus stops

because peaceful protests have eloquently made them see the error of their ways.

But the books that made me still decorate the study floor and I don’t have the oxygen to shift them.

My consultants are unanimous- my days marching to places like Welling and Trafalgar Square are over.

The risk of getting tossed into the back of a police van by over enthusiastic members of the constabulary is a luxury my lungs can no longer afford.

Even holding a placard in my wheelchair would soon have me gasping for breath.

And I thought I’d always live.

KEVIN HIGGINS

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Kevin Higgins was an Irish poet , who passed away in 2023 - within a few weeks of getting diagnosed for cancer. This is one of his last poems.