IT'S MONDAY 1955

A BOY AND GIRL IN LONDON IN 1955 AND GOING TO SCHOOL

It's Monday
and school day
with grey skies

with dull sun
and Helen
aged 7

just like me
stands waiting
by Baldy's

grocer shop
I see her
standing there

pinafore
hair in plaits
wire glasses

with thick lens
hate Mondays
she tells me

and the school
and lessons
yes me too

I tell her
we walk on
underneath

the iron
railway bridge
by the old

cinema
pass bomb sites
my Betty

is not well
she exclaims
(her old doll)

so what's wrong?
Mum said she's
got a cold

and to keep
her indoors
Helen says

best do that
I reply
wrap her warm

we go down
the subway
quite crowded

and noisy
we don't talk
she links her

arm in mine
keeps me close
we come out

on the road
to our school
she unlinks

our arms now
just in case
other kids

see us linked
and tease her
and say who's

the boyfriend
my old man
has found me

an old gun
I tell her
a real one?

she asks me
no not real
it shoots caps

he got it
from some shop
going cheap

I tell her
will you show
it to me?

after school
if you like
I reply

we can see
if Betty
is better

afterwards
she tells me
yes sure thing

I reply
just then there's
a bright sun

pushing though
dull grey clouds
in the sky.