Fish ‘n Chips

I will take one chip.

I am dipping it in

Mushy peas and I

Am pairing it with

Haddocked batter.

I will crunch gold

Through its tuber

Sponge till it runs

Thickly sweet down

My gloating gullet.

I will hold the other

Chips in their card

Board box and let the

Warmth pervade my

Ready knees uncrossed.

I will look across

The park rarely,

Keeping focussed on

The place of warmth

Bought from the chippy,

Worth its weight in time,

Each chip at least

A few seconds long,

Each crisped hunk of

Fish another golden gong.

Killing time, over a nice cuppa

Sitting cold next to Arthur,

Tea brewing strongly.

Tied the knot in 1952, now

Tightened too flat to tell knot

From rope, you pop out to shops,

You pop back to tea, he pops

Upstairs to find his crossword. You pop

Out again for more tea from Maggie’s cups –

Same bags but the milk’s not

Not gold topped. Still, there are plenty of biscuits

Arthur couldn’t eat.

Short Summary

2 minutes to Say

A day, yes, let’s,

Quick, before it’s

Stopped and the

Flesh collapses

Into sleep.

 

Say a day somewhere

Far off, not today,

That’s been and

Gone, not worth

Its weight in gold,

So little lost.

 

Say tomorrow, that

Will be, the healthy

World will wake

Once more, tireless,

Unlike me.

 

The wheels will spark

And something roll –

A Clown perhaps,

With a pair of sticks,

A ball and a gun.

 

[7^th October]