The Lookout

In my line of work, you stand neat and tucked

by the gap in the crackmans.

You play it keen, you stay real spooney,

and you keep your crown office clean.

Clean as a rifle.

Plain as a pine box.

You don’t get mauld on the ginger-bread’s scent

or the thought of the tread of the night-magistrate,

the dance or the danger,

the dark your rum duchess,

the snapping of bull dogs,

and you only imbibe enough of the whisker

to douse your little pain –

a nip of the drink called What I’m Owed,

which in any more generous measure’d render a rogue

lord surveyor of highways.

Just a drop,

or a dab.

That’s plenty when there’s portals to sweep,

and the paviours’ workshop a-fizz with the still-to-be.

Lamps out, luggs up for wayward watchmen,

the brewing insergeantcy,

mousefeet, pin,

tarantara of coming rain.

Cant:
BULL DOGS – pistols • CRACKMANS – hedges; as, The Cull thought to have lopd, by breaking thro the Crackmans. • CROWN OFFICE – the head • GINGER-BREAD – money • LAMPS – the eyes • LUGGS – the ears • MAULD – swingingly drunk • NIGHT-MAGISTRATE – a constable • PAVIOURS’ WORKSHOP – the street • RUM DUCHESS – a jolly handsome woman • SPOONEY – thin, haggard, like the shank of a spoon; also delicate, craving for something, longing for sweets. Avaricious. • SURVEYOR OF THE HIGHWAYS – one reeling drunk • WHISKER – a great lie.

(source: http://pascalbonenfant.com)

Commentary:

This poem is written in the voice of one member of a gang of crooks, and uses thieves’ cant from the 17th century, a time when ‘rogue literature’ – pamphlets documenting the supposed real-life adventures of villains and vagabonds – was extremely popular. The persona is roughly based on another character called The Lookout, who features in Pocketwatch’s 2013 stealth videogame Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine.

‘The Lookout’ won the Live Canon International Poetry Competition in 2018. A special feature of this competition is that all the shortlisted poems are performed at a theatre by actors as part of the awards ceremony.