Broadreach House* (Tavistock Corner)
October 1994
Plymouth – Devon
Two months getting sorted
Confiscated aftershave
Body search
Two weeks detox ward
Later
Primal Scream on
Wembury Beach (Plymouth)
Or up on Dartmoor
Dickensian prison rising up out
of the mist
like a b movie monster
City boys treading carefully to avoid
the bog sucking you down forever
Not like Camden town guys
Two months clean & sober?
East End gangsters, Fleet St hacks and
housewives who hid vodka in the iron
hubbie’s shirts stank of booze
when he went to work
Buckets of tears
Kings of the Landing
and Prison Swervers
Anorexics bribing
their minders with fags
to look the other way while they puked
Suicide attempts in the shower/under the duvet
More likely spent desire at night
Drugs thrown over the wall
best look the other way folks
Devon accents like wool snagged on
thorn bush – meets purring cat
Never say ‘I bet it will rain’ when you share
a dorm with a gambling addict
or talk about getting stoned in Ibiza
fixing at the back of Kings Cross
in the shadow of the sex trade
That’s ‘euphoric recall’ lose your privileges
No TV – books or newspapers
Only Saturdays
Match of the Day for the men
Casualty for the women
One short phone call with a handful of coins
“Love you baby gonna stay clean tonight”
Got to get home, a baby on the way
I need to stay clean and sober
We all deserve a brighter future and never
have to scream about it again
barefoot on the sands doused with sea spray
and sleet
Looking forward to scones & jam
back at Broadreach
instead of the vodka and smack
we did in the ‘bad old days’.
Just thinking two months and I’m out of
here with a bright new future just around
the corner.
Baby in the bed next to us…
.
Malcolm Paul
Picture Nick Victor
*Broadreach closed its doors in 2019 due to lack
of funds.
.