ZEPHANIAH: "Concrete with a heartbeat" I was born where the Beorma people made home, Handsworth, in Brummagem. For many of my early years I thought this town to be a cold suburb Of Kingston, Jamaica. My then girlfriend Jasvinder Basra Thought it to be a cold suburb of Jullunder, India, And we were both right. We, in our puppy love innocence Knew that it was only a matter of time and space, We Dark Matter grew up holding hands Listening to Reggae and Bhangra Eating channa and ackee, And playing doctors and nurses somewhere in the future. Handsworth does that to you, Historic and progressive, It wakes but never sleeps Concrete with a heartbeat. A private space for all its children That is full of stars and it keeps expanding, It is where voices from the past speak to us Every day, lived in voices Of working class heroes reminding Us that we are all Brummies, But me and Jasvinder knew this anyway. I saw riots in Handsworth, I saw revolution loitering on the streets Where money had been thrown down drains In front of people who were needy, But I also saw energy laden creators Bringing hope, And building sites of new galaxies In Brummagem, the centre of it all. This is where I discovered the nature of the universe, This is where I realised That The Theory of Everything leaves a lot to be desired, This is where The postman taught me that everything needs poetry, And that it is not gravity that gives us roots But the things we do to ourselves. But it was me that said relativity needs to relate, Space stops everything happening to you, And in my humble opinion Faith and tradition will live next to progress For as long as it takes. Cosmology? Well that’s all about me and Jasvinder. It all started with us In Handsworth in Brummagem, Where the philosophers of Grove Lane And the great thinkers of Soho Road Now recite Alpha and Omega continually. Astrophysics? That’s about the nature of our celestial bodies The application of our physical policies And the intensity of our cultural intercourse, It’s about the way we greet when we meet And the exploration of possibilities, And it must be known That all scientific studies have shown that Brummies are at home with new horizons And a multi-layered concept of place. Time? Space? Time invented itself to stop everything Happening at once. Space was grateful It had been given room to manoeuvre. They remain good friends.