Bill I found it !!not easy in my 400 or so poems
Published in 'Jigsaw'
FAMILY SECRET
MY SECOND AFTERNOON
-NOT AT SCHOOL
First day
I saw school, I did not like it!
I screamed and screamed, and screamed
my mother was summoned, to take me home
second day
I saw school, I did not like it!
I screamed and screamed, and screamed
again my mother, was summoned
later in disgrace, big disgrace
headmistress's office, big and cold
my mother was told, told off!
never have we allowed, a child
a child to go home, on his second
his second day, it's disgraceful!
sort him out, bring him back tomorrow!
or there will trouble, a lot of trouble!
later I sat snug, with biscuits under
under the counter, at my mum's job
safe in the hairdressers, all cosy
I remember nothing, nothing more.
over over forty years later
my mother so ill, so ill said
said, all drugged and confused
I want, to tell you something
I do not want to upset you, but
but do you remember, remember
on your second day, at school
when you made your second, yes
second big scene, and was disgraced
and the headmistress, was outraged
and, I took you with me to work?
soon after, the school was bombed
many children, and teachers died
on the radio, they read out sadly
read out the list, of those killed
your granny heard it, heard your name!
they found your card, by your desk
we decided not, not to tell you
also you had a sister, Margaret
who lived, lived just three days.
pmcmanus
413
Published in Jigsaw
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Max Richards
Sent: 22 January 2015 15:47
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: come friendly bombs
On Jan 22, 2015, at 9:22 PM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Find the poem, Herr Pat or re-write it. What a hoot!
>
> Bill
>
>
>> On 22 Jan 2015, at 8:08 pm, Patrick McManus
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> Enjoyed this warm tale oops nearly wrote tail -and to think that I
>> was a top speller at school -(long long since) I lost my grandmother
>> early on was devastated for years-I remember but probable can't fine
>> a WW2 poem about us together-where the aircraft I was cheering on
>> were actually German and I got hauled back into our air-raid shelter!
>> Cheers P
Slough
Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!
Come, bombs and blow to smithereens
Those air -conditioned, bright canteens, Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned
milk, tinned beans, Tinned minds, tinned breath.
Mess up the mess they call a town-
A house for ninety-seven down
And once a week a half a crown
For twenty years.
And get that man with double chin
Who'll always cheat and always win,
Who washes his repulsive skin
In women's tears:
And smash his desk of polished oak
And smash his hands so used to stroke
And stop his boring dirty joke
And make him yell.
Slough
by John Betjeman (1906 - 1984)
John Betjeman published his poem about Slough in 1937 in the collected works
Continual Dew. Slough was becoming increasingly industrial and some housing
conditions were very cramped. In willing the destruction of Slough, Betjeman
urges the bombs to pick out the vulgar profiteers but to spare the bald
young clerks. He really was very fond of his fellow human beings. Slough is
much improved nowadays and he might be pleasantly surprised by a stroll
there.
http://www-cdr.stanford.edu/intuition/Slough.html=
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