English poem on unemployment


This video is called Child soldiers in the British Army: one recruit’s story.

From Four poems by Paul Birtill in Britain:

Unemployed

Nobody had any money in those days,
we got by borrowing of each other’s giro.
Then someone mentioned in the pub that
you got fifty pounds cash if you donated
your body to medical science after death,
and a whole gang of us trooped up to the
medical school to enquire. ‘We’ve stopped
doing that now’ we were told. Too many people
were registering in Liverpool. ‘Have you thought
about joining the army?’ said the woman with a
wry smile on her face.