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Based on the reminiscences of the poet’s mother, Mary Baker, née Bowman, born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1923, about her father.

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When aa was a bairn, aa’d gan to the glassworks

to bring him his bait,

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aa’d watch him work, blow the bubbles

of hot glass.

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When he had nee job, nee money for drink,

he’d help wi’ the hoosework, scrub the floors.

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When he worked, we’d never knaa

what payday would bring.

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Me ma would watch the clock; when it struck six,

‘That’s it! He’s not coming hyem.’

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We didn’t knaa when we’d see him again,

the morra, or for a canny few days,

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till he’d spent aall his pay

on beer and pitch-n-toss.

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What would we eat?

A body cannit live on fresh air.

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When the women in wor courtyard

hord what happened, they’d send thor bairns roond;

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they’d knock on the door wi’ a few coins:

‘me Ma says to give this to Mrs Bowman.’

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Aa divint blame me Da, he had a hard life;

he had sixteen brothers and sisters

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a faather who beat his mother,

started drinkin as a bairn,

 

an when he was oot o’ work, nee money

for drink, he was a lovely fella.