Tuesday 3 June 2014

I find a poem

I've been having a clear-out, and came across a pile of old notebooks.  In one of them, I stumbled across the following, written almost exactly twenty years ago.  I've only changed a few words.

After the War

The sunshine shines
And the garden gets too hot
And Peter and Christopher
Line up all the shots
But their energy goes draining
Down the drain of tomorrow’s good ideas.
Oh dear,
Where’s the spirit of the War?

Peter says he was out there
While Chris stayed at home;
But Chris says what were you there for
When I was looking after Mum?
And the garden gets too hot
And the reason for the game
Gets lost.
Oh dear –
Was there a reason for the War?

The sun is going down
Melting in the West
And Peter sips his sunset drink,
And thinks about his best friend.

And the mother of these grown-up boys
Will be forty in July;
So she spreads the linen tablecloth
Gets everything arranged,
And doesn’t wonder why
Everything has changed.

The shadow of the cherry tree
Is heavy on the lawn
And Christopher and Peter
Pull up all the hoops
By their roots.
They stack them in the shed,
Ready for the next game.

Oh dear.



4 comments:

  1. Nice one, Tim!

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  2. I'm not sure where our croquet set is - the present lawn isn't big enough. Sad but rather lovely, Tim.

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  3. Thanks everyone.
    I'm temporarily barring comments on this post, because an anonymous idiot is spamming it, five today so far! When will they learn?
    If you want to comment, you can still do so if you have a google profile, or mail me. btw, does anyone know how to bar anonymous comments in Blogger?

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