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zondrae
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« on: February 11, 2012, 12:03:28 AM » |
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G'day All,
Hoping I am welcome back, I am posting one of the poems I wrote on the topic for the week with IBP, 'When I Was 10'. I began to do my homework and having filled two pages I printed it out to see how I was going with rhyme and metre. I often find I have to rearrange my stanzas to make the poem flow better. When I was reading through I noticed there were three stanzas of an entirely different poem tucked in the middle to the first poem. So I extracted them and made two poems of a completely different nature.
The original poem is about school days. The second poem (a little elbow job) has to be polished up and it could be competition material so I won't post it now.
Memories from long ago. Home work topic ‘when I was ten’.
Zondrae King (Corrimal) 02/12
Remember? Course I do, what! do you think that I’m senile.
Yes, I recall quite clearly, though it takes a little while.
Aged ten you said, mmm let me think. Well things are better now.
No need to work so hard to make a living, anyhow.
When I was just a little’en we didn’t have Tee Vee.
We used to have to play outside; amuse ourselves, you see.
Yes, I think my Mum’s favourite phrase was “go outside and play”.
We had no fancy play things in the backyard in my day.
When I was ten a shilling was referred to as a ‘bob’.
We kids had chores to do each day. We called each one a ‘job’.
If we should ‘answer back’ to Mum, or Dad, we’d get the strap
for punishment, or ironing cord, not just a little slap.
We walked, when we went anywhere or else we’d catch a bus.
To own a fancy motor car, not for the likes of us.
And every day the milkman would bring milk to every school.
The bottles sat out in the sun, the drink was never cool.
When I was ten, or there abouts, I earned myself a pet.
My mother brought a kitten home, a half starved waif, and yet
I thought him lovely, grey and white, with only half a tail.
That is when I worked out what it is you need if you were male.
The games we played, like ‘Hidings’ cost us nothing but our time
or find a rope and turn it for some skipping with a rhyme.
The boys hunched round, close to the ground, and shot each others tore
A pocket full of marbles.. what young Aussie wanted more.
We all collected bottle caps; the tin ones from Dad’s beer.
With brewer’s labels on them, they were gathered far and near.
There were many games invented, they were of a varied kind.
I should remember all the rules, they’re somewhere in my mind.
Everyone was equal then, now just let me recall.
First of all we’d look around and find a proper wall.
A brick one with a concrete skirt. The playground at the school
was perfect. We would all line up and no one felt fool.
The idea was to flick or spin the cap against the wall
it must be thrown quite firmly so it hit before it’s fall.
The cap then ricocheted and landed flat down on the ground.
The winner is the closest one from all those scatter round.
When playing marbles some boys kept their best one in their shirt.
The rules were set before they drew a circle in the dirt.
There were so many different types of marbles used as tores.
If you knock somebody’s else’s out, that marble became yours.
Those shiny ‘steelies’, were ball bearings from some dad’s back shed
and there were giants that were huge. I recall one boy said,
“I can get some clearies” but they just turned out to be
his mothers good ceramic beads for baking pastry.
Some other kids had ‘cats eyes’ they had levered from a sign.
We didn’t think it mattered, ‘cause they were the old design
They warned of ‘falling danger’ and were hidden out the back
of all the other warning signs they passed along the track.
Yes, things were diff’rent in the world, Britannia ruled the waves
and in some foreign places there were men that still were slaves.
There has been much invention like the modern motor cars
and men have landed on the moon, and now reach for the stars.
But people came from foreign lands, from places far and near,
for one thing, that will dominate my memory of the year.
A big event in Melbourne, that would light some lasting flames
Australians would invite the world to our Olympic games.
But I am old and weary now and know I don’t have long
there’s lots of things I’d like to do before I end my song.
For now I’ll just be happy as I doodle with this pen
and think of all the things I did the year that I was ten.
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