Mat Lloyd: Award Winning UK Performance Poet; A One Stop Spotlight
Today and tomorrow One Stop Poetry has the pleasure of highlighting Mat Lloyd. Mat has been performing poetry around the UK for 5 years, winning awards and accolades along the way. In 2009, he released his first official collection, Demo Tape. Today, however, I am dedicating this page to a charity that Mat is fully behind..CALM....
CALM...Campaign Against Living Miserably...is a UK Charity devoted to men. Suicide is the biggest killer of men aged 15 - 34 in the UK, averaging 3 deaths a day. CALM is dedicated to helping reduce the number of these deaths.
Todays feature poem, Blokes, has been used by CALM to promote their cause. It also has been released as a short film, winning Best Film at the ShortCuts Film Festival, 2009....
Blokes
A Poem by Mat Lloyd
I started the evening
By telling him
That he looked a bit fat
And he explained that
"Well.....
every-time I fuck your miss's
she gives me a donut, slut!"
Thats how we were
Him and me
Him and us
Friendly banter
And the odd
Over the top cuss
Plenty of bravado
But no false pretence
And none of our joke
At anyone else's expense
And that night
We were trying to cheer him up
The only way we could do
With Jaeger bombs and tequila
Anything with Alcohol was good
Hell they'd done it for me
With toasts of
"Screw her she's a tart"
And they were fully aware
Of my broken heart
They never snapped at me
When I was acting shit
Or complained
When I was stressed
They picked me up
And sat me down
When I was a drunken
Mess
But anyway, I digress...
Tonight
I had on my supportive hat
I told him
She looked like she apple bobbed
In chip fat
And he laughed at that
That's how we were
Him and me
Him and us
Friendly banter
And the odd
Over the top cuss
Plenty of bravado
But no false pretence
And none of our joke
At anyone else's expense
Maybe its because we where blokes
We didn't show emotion
And I suppose through the commotion
You can see that we cared
My mate stared into space
Blank look on his face
That's how I knew
No amount of cheap shots
And bravado
Could change his mood
Change tactics say something crude
That's how we were
Him and me
Him and us
Friendly banter
And the odd
Over the top cuss
Plenty of bravado
But no false pretence
And none of our joke
At anyone else's expense
That night my mate found salvation
In whisky and pills
His text saying "I'm sorry"
Still gives me the chills
That last night a memory
I remember with a blur
Should I have said something different?
That's just how we were.
I was angry at first
What could I have said
Would it have made a difference
So he'd be breathing instead?
Maybe among the cussing and bravado
And the shots on that day
I should have said "I'd miss you dude!"
But he would have probably called me "GAY"
copyright Mat Lloyd
