Len Webster's 'Forward' Poem by Len Webster

'Did you see what they did to that statue, Daddy?
See what they did to the Square?
Burnt it to cinders, those boys did, Daddy.
You don't believe me?
I swear it's true!

'What'll happen to the boys, Daddy?
Will they be put in jail like you?
Did they fight for the right
To stop thieves in the night?
Did they do what they could to be free?
Or were they caught out messing about
Like the time you lifted your hand to me?

'Since that time I've tried to be good, Daddy.
It's not always possible, I know.
But why did those boys or that boy light the fire?
Were they trying to give us a show?
Did they think it was Bonfire Night,
Want the flames to burn bright,
Attract crowds to the sight?

'I saw the burnt figures, Daddy,
Black and standing like demons over the Square.
I've dreamed of their faces,
Still gripped by the fear.,

'Do eyes fall out of their sockets or melt, Daddy?
And those real men in furnaces,
What happened to the metal they smelt, Daddy?
Is that the same as 'smell', Daddy?
Are they burning in Hell, Daddy,
And the one who lit the statue,
Will he rot there for all time
For murdering our history?
Or will we forgive him his trespasses
And let him go out and sin again?
And does nobody care any more?

'What's it like in jail, Daddy?
Will you get this in your mail?
Is someone there your friend?

'Dad, are you sad to have killed the man
Who broke into our house that night?
Do THEY read what I send?
When will YOUR sentence end? '



(Raymond Mason's 'Forward' was unveiled in Centenary Square, Birmingham, in June 1991. Nearly twelve years later, on Thursday,17 April,2003, it was set on fire...)


(c) Len Webster 2003 & 2011