No matter how she's spelled, Mrs G left her mark it 's clear, Max. I liked 'as if we were unclean/of mind as well as skin'. After the sprightly opening stanza however, I lose reading rhythm at line 7, the one about Hawke's Bay and thereafter. But perhaps that's not the idea. Also in stanza 11, it sounds like Mrs G's sister who is crook when it is your mother's sister is it not? Apologies if I am mis-reading.
Cheers,
Bill
On 22/08/2012, at 1:22 PM, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> 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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