POETRY: THE BIRTH OF TROJAN IN MY MIND BY PAUL TRISTRAM

The first time I heard a Trojan song

I was laying on my bunk in a prison cell.

My head started buzzing instantly,

I’d been a Rude Boy and a Ska Skinhead

back in school just like everyone else

with sense and style in our 80’s neighbourhood.

But this was the Roots of it all,

Dancehall, Old School Reggae.

I felt the joy run through my veins,

the energy exploding in my brain.

It made me feel proud to be working class again,

being born on the wrong side of the tracks…flipped.

I was up and bouncing like a good ’un

around the small space of my confinement.

The guy in the cell under me started kicking

his wardrobe in rhythm to the catchy beat.

The bloke next door to the left shouted

“Oi! Oi! Tristram, Turn It Up, Mate!”

I yelled Barbarian and for three perfect minutes

I was free again and grinning with enthusiasm.

We may not be ‘Young, Gifted And Black’

but we can sure as hell Moonstomp

with the best of them ‘And That’s A Fact’.

Written by Paul Tristram

Available to buy via Lulu