Member-only story
Willesden
Mar 21, 2022
Willesden in the seventies
Drunks I helped inside
But not
Dennis Andrew Nilsen
Who lived
Around the corner
In a flat that stunk
Of slaughter
Melrose Avenue,
I do believe.
Not too far
From Willesden Green
Again,
Just round the corner
Near Dollis Hill
The striking Saris
Had their say
Twenty thousand
miners
On one hot summer’s day
in the long, hot summer of 1976.
At the front
Of the Grunwick Dispute
Was Jayaben Desai
Born to give the lie
To racial stereotypes
The striking saris
Just wanted the right
To join the union
And not be sacked,
En masse,
Like the P&O
Workers of today.
