published: 1 /
3 /
2022
Robert Hadley takes photographs of poet Sean Thompson-DeWolfe at a gig at Dead Wax in Birmingham. We are also publishing one of his poems.
Article
Sean Thompson-DeWolfe is a spoken word artist from Birmingham.
These photographs by Robert Hadley were taken of Sean at a gig at Dead Wax on the 15th January for which he was the compere and also read his poetry.
The gig was headlined by local band Low Red Moon, whose frontwoman Kaytee DeWolfe is Sean’s wife. Sean also dances in front of the stage at every Low Red Moon wearing costume and hand-made masks. The latter photo shows Sean shortly before their set wearing one based on a Japanese demon mask.
We are privileged to publish one of Sean Thompson-DeWolfe’s poems, ‘Trains’.
TRAINS
At the station
She hashtags me
A glass of red wine
Across the street
Fat bingo queens hunt in packs
Messaging me a dirty laugh
That echoes like a Screech
Down the railway track
"Mate do you know where I am coming from"
Everyone quietly fingers their phone
Crawling insects
Trying to reach a destination unknown
I keep a folded up memory in my army jacket
As a reminder
Coz I always forget
When I am away
It wasn’t the right time
She said
Be with your family
Why run a different path
But last night my sister borrows money that i didn’t have
I found her next day as empty as me
Her pupils the colour of tar
I coat my tongue in
When I am up here......
When I am up here
I stop words
I really want to say
Like I hate all the shit you shovelled into me
The weed soaked street corners
Narrow minded city spaces
Chauvinistic school friends
And how I should hang out in bars
In fact in here
I scream all this crap five times a day
But all that comes out is
“Yer sound iam alright
You Are you ok?”
I sit in the mouth of the dragon
That woke me at 5am
Its flames peel back years and years I try to run away from
But you can never hide from childhood or childhood towns
If under a pillows with a an eye patch on
It always creeps back in
Drip
Drip
Drip
Crack
You see
I thought i had broken its back
But now I see a queue
All the way from my teenage years
Angry pissed wanting to give me a Slap
"Why don’t you grow up?
Catch yourself on!!"
Shouts Dad
You told me I am not the same man
But tonight it doesn’t feel like that
T1raveling down roads I never fit in
Places I don’t want to go
Mates lean out of car windows
Shout
"Thomo come on
You remember all this don’t yer
Penny for the guy
And all that
And he is being flung on the bonfire later on
Your bird isn’t here
Hang out have a line
Let’s crack open the beer
After all the reds are on"
Its 7am
Your arms are trains
And train rides away
I want to fall into them
I want you laugh at me
Dispersing up my own ass
I always felt such a round peg
In this city’s square hole
Let me kiss your forehead
Hold you tight
I just want too
Squeeze out of this brick
This mortar
This worn cobbled stones
Of my two up and two down houses
That Curl round me Sharpe and hard
Whispering “Stay quiet stay prone”
It’s all just outdated structures
Ancient mementos
Abandoned high rise council flats
Peeling damp corridors
And rotten windows
That I carry from way back when
I am Stacked and stacked and stacked
From the front to the back
A Crumpled old garbage man
I ve tried blackening out
All their faces
All their names
But still their voices move within
Predators swimming in my belly
Preying on weaker parts of me
I want to dismantle this whole disgusting circus
And burn it to the ground
Plaster dust dirty bathrooms and carpets spin and twirl to the floor
Amongst Guinness and Carlsberg cans from all the nights here
And the ones gone before
I pick myself up
Call a cab.
She calls back
Welcome home
Band Links:-
https://www.facebook.com/seanthompsonp
Play in YouTube:-
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