As I walk through the city
I hear a stream of accents
Eddies and pools of language
Floating into my ears
They want to stem the tide
Dam the flood
Newspaper headlines cry
The nation has spoken
Politicos incessantly repeat
It is the will of the people
They want conformity
Not community
Rivers of dialogue ought to run free
Let the ebb and flow of conversation continue
They do not speak for me
It is not the will of this person
Selina Lock is a mild-mannered librarian from Leicester. She occasionally commits poetry, edited The Girly Comic, and writes comic strips, including for the double-Eisner nominated To End All Wars. She has had several short stories published and a novella: Green Eyed and Grim. She has M.E./CFS and is one half of Factor Fiction alongside her partner Jay Eales.
