IBP Homework: When I was ten.......

[kate]

When I was ten
Summers were long
and sunny and hot;
Winters were cold,
and there was always snow.
I remember chicken stew
simmering in a pot,
and jewelled jars of bottled fruit
Standing in the larder in a row.
We were well-fed then,
when I was ten.

When I was ten
women knew their place
And men were men.
Money was scarce
and I remember when
my father cut the toes out from my shoes
when they grew small,
I didn’t mind at all,
That’s just the way it was back then.
When I was ten.

When I was ten
I remember girls at school
whispering in the playground,
pointing at me -“she doesn’t know.”
That night I asked my mother
what they meant, and she,
embarrassed, talked me through
The “Facts of Life”
It didn’t mean much then
When I was ten.

When I was ten
My father took his belt off
And beat me for a lie.
My mother cried a lot,
I don’t know why.
Now I understand.
Perhaps she wished to leave
And take me too.
But women didn’t do that then,
When I was ten.



When I was ten
I was a skinny little thing
with long red hair
that I could sit on.
At school the boys behind me
used to tie it to my chair.
They dipped my pigtails
in the inkwell pot
Of course they got
in trouble with the teacher.
 I was teacher’s pet back then
when I was ten.


When I was ten
we sat around the table
listening to the radio,
I remember on Sundays
“The Billy Cotton Band Show”
and dancing in the kitchen
on a Saturday night,
my father held my mother very tight,
and laughing twirled her round,
waltzing to the sound of  violins
and the Palm Court Orchestra.
It wasn’t all bad then
when I was ten.


When I was ten
Life held simple pleasures.
Now it seems
The whole world teems
With rush and crush and rage.
Bigger, better, faster, that’s the aim,
And life will never ever be the same
As once it was, in that bygone age.
That time of way-back-when,
When I was ten.


©Kate Ashforde 7 February 2012

[Bernard de Silva]

G'day Kate,
              this was an absolute pleasure to read and, to be lead to have
the mind present the conjured image...just as it did in the times of the
old radio theatre and with the on air detective plays, was a treat...A gentleman,
never embarasses a lady by questioning her age, but I agree...those were
the days...when red haired Kate was ten!

                Cheers Mate, thanks so much for sharing.
                                                                  Bernie.

[zondrae]

Thanks Kate,

For sharing your lovely poem. We had a great mix of things covered by this suggested topic. I can't post mine as I intend to polish it up a bit and send it into a competition. I can however post the second poem I wrote on the topic.