Photography © Glenn Bowie

 

Home

These roads were different
the last time they were home.

These roads were softer
on our horses heels.
Look at them now, they’re sealed
with hazards.

These roads go ever straighter
and narrow.
On a clear day you can almost see
the end.

These roads are walled
with ever more
welcome mats.
These roads are ever less
welcoming.

These roads were different.
We must keep riding them
or there’ll be no roads left at all.

 

Roy Duffield is a writer and translator from the working class and an editor over at Anti-Heroin Chic, a journal that puts those on the outside inside. He once managed to talk his way onto the rooftop in Mexico City where Kerouac wrote Tristessa, and was later honored to be chosen to perform his own work at the 2019 Beat Poetry Festival in Barcelona, alongside some of the contemporary Spanish performance poets he most admires. “Home” is a response against the new Trespass Police Bill recently passed in the UK which targets and criminalizes gypsies and other nomadic lifestyles.

Glenn Bowie is a published poet, lyricist and photographer from the Boston area. He also owns and operates an elevator company that supplies custom-built elevators for clients from New England to Hollywood. Author of two poetry and photograph collections (Under the Weight of Whispers and Into the Thorns and Honey) on Big Table Publishing, he donates all profits from his books to various charities for the homeless and local animal shelters.