![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/350dd1a4eb1b2150e3f5ece8e33ee186.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Holding Pen<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n by Rita Ann Higgins<\/em><\/p>\n When did we become It\u2019s your fault if you\u2019re early Its written on your boarding card You are our lab-rats It\u2019s your fault if you have kids and no husband Achtung: this is your airport Bring proof, bring toilet paper If you have a bag and a half Look what we are doing for you, Photo: Johnny Void<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Holding Pen by Rita Ann Higgins When did we becomeso filled with anxiety and fearat the prospect of a holiday in the sunor a visit to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":495,"featured_media":14673,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1660],"tags":[1721,2631,2630,2629],"class_list":["post-14675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-2","tag-austerity","tag-dublin","tag-gatwick","tag-heathrow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/495"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
so filled with anxiety and fear
at the prospect of a holiday in the sun
or a visit to friends abroad?<\/p>\n
it\u2019s your fault if you\u2019re late
it\u2019s your fault if you\u2019re old<\/p>\n
\u2018you are to blame, do the walk of shame\u2019
it\u2019s slow and it\u2019s hot, it\u2019s a crawl and it\u2019s not.
Rest easy, we will manage you.
We will triage you
steel barriers, steel gates,
stay within fences, stay in.
We\u2019ll put you in the holding-pen.
(Aka the welfare zone)<\/p>\n
when we say run, you rat run
when we say wait at the gate,
you say, how high?
When we say wait in the holding pen
you wait, we win.
Queue up and shut up.
We are not the housing department
but we will put up a bad-weather cover
on the pen.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s your fault if you are in a wheelchair.
It\u2019s your fault if you have autism.<\/p>\n
We will triage you to within an inch of your life.
Long haul with luggage
we\u2019ll put you in the pen
Short haul with luggage
we\u2019ll put you in the pen.<\/p>\n
the proof has to go through
the bad weather-roof.
Reams of print-outs to prove
you have a flight booked
and you\u2019re not just a tire kicker
here for the three-star holding-pen
(aka the Welfare Zone).<\/p>\n
on the short haul
to drop in the bag-hole
arrive often but not too early.
If you have two and a half bags
on the long haul
to drop in the bag-hole
arrive the day before
but not before the witching hour.<\/p>\n
we\u2019re giving you a steel pen
Gates and barriers
we\u2019ll guide you
we\u2019ll divide you
we\u2019ll corral you
we\u2019ll steer you in.
All you have to do it queue.
We\u2019d do it for cattle
we\u2019d do it for sheep
we\u2019d do it for pigs
why wouldn\u2019t we do it for you?
View it as a rat run
Get in.<\/p>\n![\"dole](\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/dole-queue.jpg\")
<\/p>\n