Miss Golland set her Year 11 class the task of writing a reply from the Clown Punk to the speaker in Simon Armitage’s poem, The Clown Punk. Here are some of the amazing poems they produced:
The Clown Punk’s Reply
You see them driving through our part of town,
with their faces withdrawn and their windows locked sound.
Like an array of mannequins that got up
and decided, that they were the best. But
don’t laugh, though they say money is freedom,
they look trapped in a place that seldom
sees fun. And as they drive down the road,
think what they’ll have to remember thirty years gone.
The vacant expressions of a past
of a life that never moved anywhere fast.
Their kids so protected, who have yet to wince and scream,
whilst my kids are past that and prepared to be mean.
Remember the mannequin with his constricting ways,
then picture true freedom, free from your brain.
Christina Long