Response to Simon Armitage's Kid by Matt Wild


Here is a poem by Matt Wild:  

Response to Simon Armitage’s KID


Simon, poet, when you wrote the poem

about growing up, with Robin rebounding
from his life of crime-busting … well, I didn't turn the corner.
I'm no Robin and you're no Batman;
we've never so much as shaken hands
and I won't have my writing, this thing I do,
labelled, parcelled and sent by Royal Mail to you
because it's not yours. It's mine,
and you don't need to be dressed in tights
to know it's a crime to claim the right
to somebody else's property.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you'd do that
but there are people out there who'd suggest
that you're the one who flashed the lamp to get me going,
showed me how to flow my words,
but no.
You can't claim ownership of light,
and if it was your Batsignal I saw that night
then that's just great, but it doesn't change the fact
that I'm the one that was looking in the sky
for something better than what I had.
I'm just the same, but now I write.
Simon, it makes a wonderful picture to see
me outstripping you in some poetry race
and take the lead but that's just some pipe dream.
It would be much better to find your hand,
shake it, then leave. I'm a poet,
now, and nobody's taking that from me.

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