Bradford Middleton

A FEW EXTRA HOURS OF FREEDOM

It was one of those rarest of days
A day when I was happy to be at work
& left with a youthful excitement as
Tonight, they told me, we don’t need
You around so how about you finish
Half-3 rather than 9 and like a shot
I got my shift done & ran the whole
200 yards home with not a clue what
To do with all this extra freedom so
I sat down & wrote this poem to show
That sometimes I can write whilst
In a state of glorious happy excitement!

REMEMBERING THIS LIFE

I sit back and relax for the first time in a long
Old while as at last work has driven me to
Exhaustion and back here, to my favourite place,
My horrible rancid room. Everything I need
Is here and tomorrow I have no plans besides
Filling this ashtray a whole lot more, eat
Something good for my soul and rest up as I
Heal some more. I’ll probably read some
Old classic crime-caper or maybe just watch
Some old gloriously black & white movie as
I return here remembering just who I am and
What this life is all about as in these last few
Months have been lost to the continual onslaught
Of that damn place round the corner called
Work.

Bradford Middleton lives in Brighton on England’s south-coast where he works part-time in a budget book/art-supply shop. He was born in London during the long hot summer of 1971 and was the first in his family to make it to university. Recent poems appear in The Scum Rag, Hiram Poetry Review, the Acid Bath anthology Night Terrors, Yellow Mama, The Candid Review, Razur Cuts, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Broken Teacup and the Mad Swirl. He’s currently submitting his debut collection around the small presses.