Unused Material

 

                                                            Picture credit: Google (free)

If you’ve ever been involved in the criminal justice system, you may know about ‘unused material’. Unused material is all the exhibits, documents, files and data collected during an investigation that don’t make the cut to support the prosecution case – a plethora of stuff that probably won’t see the light of day again. In big cases, thousands of items in hundreds of boxes get dispatched to a nondescript warehouse until the rules permit their destruction. Often there’s more unused material than used!

As writers, ‘unused material’ might be a concept you’re all too familiar with. How many words do you have stored away on your computer, in a drawer or dusty box that once seemed exciting or important but eventually got relegated to unused?

Among all of us, I expect it runs into the millions, but we shouldn’t conflate unused forever with unused for now. Sometimes the situation changes, and we need to be ready when that happens. An important, if unglamorous, role in a trial is that of the disclosure officer, who knows exactly where every piece of evidence is and can bring it back into play as soon as it’s called upon, even a seemingly insignificant item of little apparent value.

I’ve been blogging for MTW since 2022, and since then I’ve always written something bespoke each time. This month, though, whenever I pondered my contribution, I felt a call not to write but to share this piece of my unused material from 2021, a time when I had only just begun exploring writing. Trust me, on your behalf I resisted this – material in my unused pile is there for a reason. Irrelevant. Unworthy. Rubbish. Unfinished. The piece I’m sharing is better heard than read, but never mind. The court has directed it to be unearthed, and I don’t fancy a trip to the cells for refusing, so here’s ‘Slippery Friend’, a previously unseen exhibit from a writer who knows nothing about poetry!

Slippery Friend

CONFIDENCE oh CONFIDENCE where ARRRE you?

My self-help guru says we must stick like glue.

You were with me yesterday

today you are gone.

When you’re with me

I’m strong

but without you 

I’m lost.

Where do you come from?

And where do you go?

Do you like playing games?

Are you friend or foe?

Can we meet up tomorrow?

You can stay for a while.

Better still, have a key

move in with me.

You seem like a nomad

you won’t settle down.

It’s hard to make plans

without you around.

I’ve reached a conclusion.

It was all an illusion.

My old pal Confidence

was never my mate.

He leaves without warning

or turns up too late.

It’s time I split up

from this slippery slug.

He’s nothing but a snake -

a philandering thug.

I’ve leant too much

on my own understanding.

Entrusted my thinking

to weak, fickle feeling.

My confidence is in the Lord.

He’s my fortress, my deliverer

the source of my worth.

Knock knock

Knock knock

Is that you, Confidence?

Step away from my door

I’ve changed the lock

and found a true rock.