A Life Sentence Poem by Mark Heathcote

Leaving school, starting work a life sentence
Past down by official's; that second week
I acquired one to stretch all my tendons.
Tire me out - test my young boyish physique.
Life started out an unwanted odour;
Hurling hay bales and straw for little pay,
One of those government schemes to lower
The employment numbers - joined in naivety
I laboured relishing its physical pain
Taking on all-natural elements
Stamping my boots I fought the inhumane-
Weather, like fighting in the battlements
Of some war; in ranks of raspberry canes
My fingers bled, they froze to a neon blue.
Out with the old - as above airplanes-
Flew to warmer climes; I tied back the new.
Knowing full-well nothing would ever change?
That the system-round-here had me in chains
My future prepared was somewhat arranged-
Long before, I could play track and toy trains.