The Food On Our Table
The Food On Our Table is a celebration of a project that united Lewisham's restaurants, writers, and communities. This special booklet features commissioned poems written by local Lewisham writers inspired by residencies at local independent restaurants/ cafés, by: Laura Barker, Jody Burton, Jamie Hale, Y.A. Poet, Laila Sumpton, and Carinya Sharples. It also celebrates Lewisham community groups and residents, who have also contributed their words and energy to this book. The Food On Our Table is based on a project led by Carinya Sharples, supported by Spread the Word and funded by Lewisham Council through the Lewisham Borough of Culture Creative Change Fund.
The Food On Our Table is a celebration of a project that united Lewisham's restaurants, writers, and communities. This special booklet features commissioned poems written by local Lewisham writers inspired by residencies at local independent restaurants/ cafés, by: Laura Barker, Jody Burton, Jamie Hale, Y.A. Poet, Laila Sumpton, and Carinya Sharples. It also celebrates Lewisham community groups and residents, who have also contributed their words and energy to this book. The Food On Our Table is based on a project led by Carinya Sharples, supported by Spread the Word and funded by Lewisham Council through the Lewisham Borough of Culture Creative Change Fund.
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<strong>The</strong> Front Room Club<br />
<br />
I shouldn’t be here, she winks,<br />
crutch propped, crunching through<br />
crispy seabass on paper plates.<br />
Doctor said: Give it a few more weeks.<br />
<br />
<strong>The</strong> room warms with not just food.<br />
A waitress in a school blazer offers<br />
Weetabix soup! Weetabix soup!<br />
that tastes of earthy mushrooms.<br />
You’re eating the burnt bits?<br />
asks a girl drawing speckled doughnuts<br />
and piles of spaghetti bolognese.<br />
I say, I like it crispy.<br />
<br />
<strong>The</strong> table is littered with elbows,<br />
mobiles, newspapers, expectant<br />
bingo cards, Scrabble, knitting –<br />
scraps of stories and poems.<br />
<br />
<strong>Food</strong> and time is donated, shared.<br />
We put our £3 in the kitchen kitty<br />
and for what we receive<br />
we are truly thankful.<br />
<br />
In an empty home round the corner,<br />
shadow fingers grip knife and fork;<br />
the ghost of a crutch leans weightlessly.<br />
<strong>The</strong> quiet is deafening.<br />
<br />
Carinya Sharples<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>The</strong> <strong>Food</strong> <strong>On</strong> <strong>Our</strong> <strong>Table</strong> <strong>Table</strong><br />
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