at the Epsom Derby on 4 June 1913. Public Domain.
by Arwen Webb
you gave up your teaching job
arrested unafraid
force fed forty-nine times
a month’s hard labour
you blockaded your cell
the guard filled it with water
you sued the wardens
they gave your forty shillings
you threw rocks at the Chancellor
you dared to ask questions
hid in the House of Commons
far from home
where you are known as Pem
you smile as you remember
as you pack a Suffrage banner
“One big tragedy may save others”
you say as you step out in front
of the King’s horse.
This poem is one of the many from the new poetry anthology Shoulder to Shoulder: Poems to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1926 General Strike read the foreword by Sharon Graham here.
