The 2012 London Olympics is almost here! Being an Olympic 2012 Youth Ambassador and 2012 Legacy Youth Panel member, but above all, a Leytonstone girl, I felt the need to express my own fear and hopes and emotions towards the Games and what it shall bring for our community through my own get-away poetry...
2012 Dream Of A LeytonstOne Teenager
The songs of the birds...
The wake-up call
And the good-night lullaby...
Childhood, Nature, Memories...
Our garden was always wild,
the long blades of grass...the eucalyptus in the front yard...
The neighbours:
An elderly couple...I helped them learn about technology...
They taught me the philosophies of life...
The corner-shop and grocery: One-Pound-One-Bowl;
We shared a bonding...they knew our lives, our joys, our problems...
We were a community.
Yet somehow,
the shady winding paths lost appeal and we too followed the high road of expectations...
leaving the 4-bedroom bungalow for a concrete cage of an apartment,
the motorway racing by, when I dare to peer down the bridge....
my garden is now paved, the flowers only in pots...
The inhospitable staff at the nearby 'Tesco'...
The generic: "you all right?"
she doesn't know me, nor does she care for my troubles...
The lost community spirit still tries to exist, to survive, in this manufactured, ultra-modern world
Yet, the full-bloom of roses at the tube-station...
brought us together again...
When one kind lady offered to unite us in a snap, asking dad to join in...
I now volunteer to be the camera-girl, if i see a family struggling to connect...
A petty deed, yet one that holds the power of forming a community again...
But: we come together too, in a different manner...
Complaining about Boris' Tfl's failure,
a moaning voice...in unison
But I wish, we would be together when the park opens on the 27th of July, this year...
United in appreciation, not complaint...
