Joyce, my mother
On her daybed in the living room
Didn’t like Oasis, the Gallagher brothers
And I preferred Rory (no relation)
But they had a certain swagger and ability
To create anthems that unsettled the middle classes
Who liked to own the background noise
In addition to the music. I believe for Mum
It all went back to Manchester
And the creation of the overspill on Hattersley
For the houses being demolished in the 1960s
It was where they found the murderers
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley
They were living with her Grandma
Flecks of blood still glistening on the budgerigar
Anyway, she thought them mucky,
The Gallaghers. Ill-mannered and
Uncouth, with mouths that needed washing
I think that was their value
Their (brief) challenge to authority. How
Things had been and would remain, indefinitely
.
Steven Taylor
.