South is my birthmark and it is my honour to protect your name. You may not see these paintings as the gritty south but they are to me in many ways. I see the lines of people as they move between the streets. The colours of the signage and the divide between the sky, the ground and the tube beneath our feet.

​

The most glamourous city I've ever known, who's views are desirable at every turn. From the edge of a bridge looking down the River Thames, to down an alley lit by a night club where communities collide and he/she becomes they and them.

Your poeticism is unignorable. Those angles and them curves! But they're bleaching your melanin with newbuilds and using cladding to hide ours. Sometimes I wish you'd fight back even though I'm not sure how. You caught fire back in 2008 and look where we are now.

​

You have been painted onto my soul, my voice, my fashion, my face. Being from South is my unapologetic plee that I never have to lose myself again. 

I feel safe here, I feel me. I know you, and you know me.

But if one day I have to leave, I'll find my way back to these streets. It'll be like I never left because my history, my place here is unerasable you see.

South is my birthmark and it is my honour to protect your name... Click to continue reading poem