Thursday 16 January 2014

Poem of the week - Mars And The Milky Way

I wrote this poem about a faraway memory of when I used to stay the night together with my family sometimes at my aunt’s house, which was always exciting because my brothers and my sister and I would play mad, dangerous games with my crazy cousins, that sometimes involved jumping off bridges and running along railway tracks, pretending to be cowboys and Indians.  Strangely enough none of us got hurt… well not really hurt.  We were dirt poor, and so when we were bought chocolate it was a real treat.  Even then I was fascinated by the night sky and loved looking at the stars; dreaming probably of one day becoming an astronaut; a tall hope for a Black Country kid on a rough estate, but at that age nothing seemed impossible.  Anyhow, after a day of games and mayhem we’d all be crowded together, three or four in a bed, and on that particular night I just couldn’t get to sleep, so I crept downstairs and discovered my mum and aunt chatting together and scoffing chocolate..!
   
MARS AND THE MILKY WAY

I'm sitting on my mum's lap.
Two, maybe three years old,
The stars are spinning,
The stars are spinning.
I'm at my aunt's house,
My brothers and sister are in bed.
I can't sleep,
I can't sleep -
The red curtains that look like carpets, slake across the window,
But the moon pours in -
I'm awake.
I'm three years old,
I've been jumping off railway bridges,
I've been jumping off railway bridges into straw,
Listening for trains with my ear to the rail, like Indians do -
How old am I?
I'm two, no three - maybe four years old,
I'm sitting on my mum's knee - the telly's off,
The men aren't around,
Perhaps they're up the pub?
The conversation is soft and pink and funny,
I don't understand it.
My mum is eating some chocolate; she gives me a bite -
It's not a Milky Way; it's a Mars Bar,
Something different, more expensive -
Toffee, caramel...
My mum's eyes sparkle with love, like stars in the sky,
My aunt's childish laughter at my surprise makes me smile;
The stars outside, I know,
I know,
I really know
Are big and sparkly, and like big jewellery, sparkly...
Stars - shining.
I'm a kid hugging a mum,
And I don't know if I'm two or three or four,
But I'm eating a Mars Bar and the stars are shining outside,
And my brothers and my sister and my cousins
Are all asleep upstairs,
And I'm eating a Mars Bar with my mum,
And the Milky Way is spinning away, and Mars is big and red,
And Auntie Eileen says "He likes a bit of chocolate!”
And I take another bite of a Mars Bar, looking at my mum,
Who smiles back like the moon.