Some examples of work student work from the Creative Writing Courses run at WMC by Tutor Lucy Popescu.

 

 

THE SEEKER’S PRAYER

 

I came from very far away

A miracle I’m here today

I ran from blasts, and bombs, and hurt

And trod a thousand miles of dirt

Wire and wolves across my path

Flying from the aftermath

These days that you call Christmastime

A muslim boy, they are not mine

Yet in the belly of the beast

My fleeing soul still seeks your peace

At your border, in the mud

My seeker’s prayer I make to God

Or fallen from the toppling boat

Where children drowned, who could not float

Or clinging to the lorry door

So frantic for the farther shore

The brutal guards fire in the air

To turn the tide of dark despair

I cry out from your TV screen

But God above knows what I mean

I hope you know, I really do

That I’m a person, just like you.

 

Duncan Reddington 2016

 

Mother’s Little Helper

by Imogen Stead
At last they were out the door and on the landing, Tyler eagerly pressed the ‘call lift’ button. The lift was out of order. They began the sixteen flight descent picking their way through black dustbin sacks that had been chucked at the rubbish chute and missed and now spewed out oily takeaway cartons, much to the delight of a rat that sat dining on chicken bhuna. Down, down, down they went, passing the graffitied walls, amongst the illegible scribbles someone had daubed ‘life is shit’ in human excrement, the stench was overpowering. At last they reached the bottom of the stairwell where they stepped over unconscious bodies in sleeping bags taking care to avoid the discarded syringes. Finally they were out in the open.
“I’m gonna get my money today and then I’m gonna tidy up and tomorrow I’ll take you out
somewhere, we could go to the zoo and see the monkeys, you’d like that!” Tracey declared.
“ You promise Mummy, like really promise?” Tyler said timidly.
They arrived at the school, the bell had gone, the playground was empty, Mrs Clarkson, the headmistress was there, Tyler gripped his mum’s hand, Mrs Clarkson scolded them for being late, and remarked on the fact it was the middle of winter and Tyler was wearing plimsolls.
Tracey saw Tyler to his classroom and then headed for the Post Office where she collected her child support allowance. Tracey then went straight to Kwik Save where she bought six pints of UHT milk, forty tea bags, a value bag of oven chips, a pack of 16 beef burgers five tins of baked beans, two tins of marrowfat peas, a large box of cornflakes and a carton of four doughnuts with pink icing and multi-coloured sprinkles – a treat for Tyler. That little lot will see us through the week she thought.
On her way home she bumped into Weasel, he was his usual furtive self. He ran his nail bitten fingers through his black greasy hair and grinned at Tracey, displaying his black rotting teeth.
“Looking for me love?” he leered.
The shopping bags a give away she’d collected her dole.
“I’ve got some great gear!”
“No ta, I’m steering clear this week, I promised me boy I’d take ‘im somewhere nice!”
“ Aww Trace you’re such a good mum!”
Tracey detected a hint of sarcasm.
“I know, ‘ave this on me – a sample”
Weasel handed her a small, clear polythene bag with some brown crystals in it.
Tracey hesitated for a moment but then hastily shoved it in her pocket and walked on, anxiouslylooking around to check no one was watching.
Tracey got back to the flat and started clearing the cereal bowls with the dregs of milk and
cornflakes from the coffee table, she took them to the kitchen, it was dim so she flicked the lightswitch, a cockroach scurried under the fridge.
Tracey looked at the dirty crockery piled high in the sink ………….