"Up and Coming"

Some things will never change
Peckham represents every nation
Don't believe all you hear
About this so-called gentrification.
We've still got our untold Irish
Nigerians, Vietnamese galore
And a ton of Council flats
Populated by the poor.
In fact the only thing bringing down the area,
What I'd call 'Upmarket Blight'
Is the weirdy beardy tosspot middle class hipsters
Who invade on a Friday & Saturday night.
If you venture down Rye Lane
You can't have a pint in a pub
All turned into posh flats or a bookies
So you're left with an 'edgy club'.
I'm not getting any younger
With age I thought I'd seen it all
But a mate took me in a place
Fuck me...did my jaw fall!
Don't get me wrong
I can accept change
But what kind of mug do you take me for
At that price range?
My 'new football friends'
Are ok but branded the 'student type'
Then we walk into London's only 'arcade bar'
Magnet for the genuine hipster cunt type.
Overpriced craft beers
Being ripped off just to be hip
Is it any wonder on my working class shoulder
I've got such a huge fucking chip?
The only black bloke there
Was the bouncer on the door
Economic apartheid
No entry for Peckham's poor.
They all call SE15 'edgy'
Scared of bumping into a 'Gangsta' with a gun
But still take the risk of coming here
Because an old shooting game is fun.
I'm not advocating violence
Though I'd love to give this crowd a rocket
In my head wishing I had
A hand grenade in my pocket.
To be fair I wouldn't know a 'hipster'
If one hit me in the face
But if one of them did that
He soon know his fucking place!
I just wish they'd piss off back to the station
And get back on their Overground
Away from a Rye Lane I know longer know
Bugger off home Shoreditch and Dalston bound.

Dulwich Poet 16th November 2014

(On the way home from football on Saturday, I stayed with a few mates, and we went into Peckham. We went into 'The Four Quarters' on Rye Lane..something called an 'arcade bar'!)