Poetry

This is an interesting poem about what it was like to work in a Scottish shipyard. This is a useful source of information, as the writer is an expert on working conditions since he was employed in a Clydeside shipyard. The writer uses many of the words that the shipyard workers would have used when talking about their jobs.

The Journeyman by Brian Whittingham

Wurkin piecework in the funnel shoap,
building quick
but no quick enuff,
cursin an liftin an swerrin
cause it takes too long
tae wait oan the crane-man who
is lookin efter his mate
who stands him a few dinner time bevies
at the Seven Seas public bar
an you know cause
that's wherr you get yir three pint chaser
fur yir ashet pie supper
that yi eat wi yir rusty fingers,
then yi fa oot wi the timekeeper
cause o the stupit time he pit oan the joab
an you kid oan the boey
who wiz daft enuff tae
let yi pit a brush handle
through the arms of his ovoies
an you play
spin the hammer
like it wiz yir prize six shooter
an you laugh when the boey tries it
an it nearly brekks his toes,
an yi go tao the burner
an patter him up
so he'll burn yir joab
an yi momentarily watch
his torch ignitin
and you watch
the gas yi couldnae see
exploding
like a bomb,
an the cloud of rusty dust
an bodies hidin behind
guillotines an
flangers an
scrap-buckets an
yi squint thru the haze
at the guy that's no therr
cause he's been blown down the passage
wi a hole in his side
that he didnae huv
before yi pattered hin up,
an yi stoat ower tae the first aider
who pits a dod o cotton-wool stuck oan
wi sellotape, ower yir eye,
an yi realise how lucky yi wur
an how lucky the burner wisnae
then again,
he could huv been the guy
that fell in the furnace,
the first-aider wisnae much use tae him
neither he wiz.