Rereading, I see I have been unnecessarily pernickety. Mr Gray lives on long after her unwanted help has faded.
On 22/08/2012, at 1:22 PM, Max Richards wrote:
> Mrs Gray Who Came to Stay
>
>
> Mrs Grey with an E?
> Gray with an A?
> My sister and I
> were full of dismay
> when she came to stay.
>
> Our mother had to go away
> to far-off Hawke's Bay -
> her sister was ill again -
> 'just for a few days
> till your aunt is well again'.
>
> We already knew bad things
> about that Mrs Gray.
> She didn't like kids!
> She didn't like talking.
> She cooked nasty food
> and made us eat it.
> That was at her place
> in Taranaki -
>
> now she was coming to stay
> in our own house -
> Mother would be away
> in far-off Hawke's Bay.
>
> Mrs Gray came.
> Mother left
> by bus and train
> (get off the express
> at Palmerston,
> change then
> to the Napier line)
> leaving the two of us bereft.
>
> So our first night
> without Mum fell -
> Mrs Gray cooked
> our very first meal.
> It was large and vile,
> potatoes lumpy,
> Mrs Gray grumpy,
> we two grumpier,
> pudding lumpier.
>
> After dinner she allowed
> no play outside.
> Bathtime - overseen
> as if we were unclean
> of mind as well as skin
> and about to sin.
>
> School next day
> (packed lunch - so dry!)
> was good at least for play,
> free and noisy.
> Going home slowly,
> feet dragging, uneasy.
>
> 'There you are! What took
> you so long? Now sit
> down with a book
> and keep quiet.
> Dinner's on -
> ready soon.
> Then you can have
> an early night.'
>
> She was a fright,
> that Mrs Gray.
> If you peeked on her
> when she was free
> she'd be sitting still
> on the settee
> staring into space.
> She was a widow,
> that we knew.
> That must be
> what widows do.
>
> Roll on the day
> when her sister
> in Hawke's Bay
> is well again,
> Mum takes the train,
> the day of Mum's return!
>
> It came - none too soon.
> The express got in
> from Palmerston,
> on time, on track!
> and gave her back
> to us again.
>
> 'Goodbye, Mrs Gray!'
> (Go back to Taranaki -
> come again no other day -
> be a good widow shut
> in your empty house
> with windows locked -
> and stay away!)
>
> We ate well again,
> went freely out to play,
> romped at bath-time
> splashing each other
> and our mother,
> went singing late to bed.
> She tucked us up that night -
> we smiled up at her so bright.
>
>
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