Poem: Martyn Brown’s ‘Moving Pictures’

One face at a time

Keep the subject well lit

No shadow or obstacle

To mar a clear headshot

The challenge can now begin

*

The context is all

Peripheral vision

Adding gesture and meaning

Drawing the eyes inside

To highlight the vocal point

*

Naked or pierced

Painted pillar box red

Perpetual motion lips

Throwing shapes at random

To lead me a merry dance

*

Catch the words at birth

Decode any pattern

Of dialect and accent

All in a split second

While sizing up the next wave

*

One butter finger

And I am in the dark

My line is disconnected

Or re-routed onto

A different train of thought

*

Survival instinct

Eat and not be eaten

Hunger for information

The skill to feed off scraps

Yet feast at the same table

*

A silent talkie

Or foreign language film

Moving pictures brought to life

Each one tells a story

Of hope that I can belong

*

Martyn Brown is a deaf grandad in a hearing family. He regularly regularly speaks for NDCS and (from 2017) Hearing Dogs for the Deaf. He relies on digital aids, lip reading and is a black belt in the Deaf Nod.

The Limping Chicken’s supporters provide: BSL translation, multimedia solutions, television production and BSL training (Remark! ), sign language interpreting and communications support (Deaf Umbrella), online BSL video interpreting (SignVideo), theatre captioning (STAGETEXT), legal advice for Deaf people (RAD Deaf Law Centre), Remote Captioning (Bee Communications), visual theatre with BSL (Krazy Kat) , healthcare support for Deaf people (SignHealth), specialist lipspeaking support (Lipspeaker UK), sign language and Red Dot online video interpreting (Action Deafness Communications) & advice for Deaf students (The University of Wolverhampton’s Deaf Learner Open Day on Wednesday 27th March!)