Poetry Corner: The Glamorous Southside
Published in Issue 1 of Greater Govanhill, this poem was written as part of the Govanhill Queer Community Banner Project which set out to celebrate the queer community in and around the Southside of Glasgow.
Speaking about the project, renowned writer, and author of award winning book, The Black Flamingo, Dean Atta said:
“I was so honoured to be entrusted with the words of local writers to shape them into a group poem. To also see some of those words stitched into patches on the banner makes this project feel all the more unified. We had originally hoped to conduct workshops where the sewing and writing would happen alongside each other in the same physical space. Because of Covid-19, the writing workshops moved online, and the banner creation was facilitated by fabric patches being sent out in the post by Category Is Books. The supremely talented Drew Taylor has done such an amazing job of bringing everything together.”
The Glamorous Southside
Words by Anna Walsh, Bel Pye, Etzali Hernández, Michelle K Jamieson, Rose O’Doherty. Edited by Dean Atta
You collect some of those
petal bunches as you leave.
Leave the quietness,
down the weathered stone steps,
past the runners, past the trees,
past the childhood memories
of lessons on trees and shrubs
and plants and flowers.
Out the gates, into the hustle
and bustle of Govanhill,
where so many memories
were made. Are still made.
The glamorous Southside
with red lipstick on, studded boots,
denim jacket with an anarchist patch
and an orange bandana in the left pocket.
An oasis of queerness
in a gentrified neighbourhood,
in a city with a rich dark past
connect to the Caribbean,
to slavery and colonial destruction.
The lines of the road fan our crumbling,
a ball rumbles up against the fence,
two kids, one teaching the other
how to ride a bike, how to stay upright.
You have fallen, joyfully.
The Govanhill Queer Banner project was a collaboration between Category is Books and Govanhill Baths Community Trust working with poet Dean Atta and artist gainAgain (Drew Taylor Wilson). It was funded by Glasgow Life Arts Development Scheme.
