Anti-Mother Goose?
Glad I never had to live through that...
Doug
On 2012-08-22, at 7:54 AM, Andrew Burke <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Yes, I recognise the experience. Parents on a sea voyage - but the tale is
> similar, only the facts need to be changed to protect the guilty. So, a
> poem I can relate to, Max, thanks.
>
>
>
> On 22 August 2012 20:20, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>
>> Chilling stuff
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
>> Behalf Of Max Richards
>> Sent: 22 August 2012 04:22
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: 'Mrs Gray' [for a kids' book]
>>
>> 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.
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Andrew
> http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
> 'Undercover of Lightness'
> http://walleahpress.com.au/recent-publications.html
> 'Shikibu Shuffle'
> http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/new-from-aboveground-press-shikibu.html
>
Douglas Barbour
[log in to unmask]
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
http://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
Latest books:
Continuations & Continuations 2 (with Sheila E Murphy)
http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=962
Wednesdays'
http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html
Why can’t words mean what they say?
Robert Kroetsch
