Take Me To The Marble Street Cut

from the Spit Mancunia collection

.........

by the born-again tellers and the charity sellers

in the midst of the retail throng

by the water-fight ferals

and the chavs, jons and beryls

to the beat of the brass band gong

there's a dainty little nook

you can spot it if you look

tucked in by the ATM queues

betwixt stores multi-decker

there's an alley way Mecca

running west from the Tram Stop News

I don't think I'm being silly

looking down on Piccadilly

as a circus full of mis-fits en masse

and it goes without saying

it's a price worth paying

to escape off down the Marble Street pass

where the dole queue wizards eye the

sales-desk lizards

and silence feels a light-year hence

when the benefits mullahs

are spouting as much bull as ever

oh for a break in the fence!

with the bags getting heavy

now the shops have nicked their levy

and my wallet makes the options slam shut

it's a joy

it's a blessing

like a low-cal dressing

oh take me to the Marble Street cut

roll up! roll over

kill me now

make it over

these mall-stretch maggots turn my gut

this shopping lark is wrecked

my kingdom to eject

my kingdom for the Marble Street cut

it's oh so un-British

when the Stretford skittish

and the Moss Side mothers are afoot

and I'm praying on high

to the big man in the sky

"Lord, deliver me to Marble Street cut"

what can one feel but derision

for this Arndale "vision"

that turns people into eaters

and rash ?

I just take it on the chin

this bargain base bin

is material acquisition-soaked trash

I would miss it should I blink

and yet within a wink

I am lost to the tabloid splut

and there's no one else around

on this tranquil hallowed ground

in the freedom of the Marble Street cut

don't serve shop porridge

when a little local knowledge

will jolt you from the cattle-mart rut

take heed

take your time

never waste away in line

just take off down the Marble Street cut

gknapton

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