This must be
the lowest hour
of the low.
I am
wet through in the dog-end gutter
of a whiplashed Manchester,
where the rain
bolts down
and the darkness
simply soaks you
to the guts of your soul.
I am
a lost boy,
drenched
from the black Pennines;
a stranger drinking
a glass of gloom
with Thatcher’s underclass.
Here, in the Spanking Roger,
Miles Platting,
they are all
making a racket,
working the rotting
system.
You can get
touched up
for a tanner
or spanked,
wanked
and rogered
for a bob.
It’s all in a sodden carrier bag,
a greasy spoon;
all in
a backstreet cruise,
a sopping blow job,
a blob
for a raindrop:
this Manchester-wet
dream.
KEITH ARMSTRONG
In the 18th centrury, Kersal Moor was used for nude male races, allowing females to study the form before choosing their mates. Roger Aytoun, known as "Spanking Roger" who was later a hero of the Siege of Gibraltar, acquired Hough Hall in Moston, through marriage after such a race. On 2 Feb 1769 he married wealthy Manchester widow Barbara Mynshull, 65, whose fortune he then squandered.
The pub named after him has been demolished since my visit there.
