LITTLE THINGS (CHILDISH THINGS NEVER PUT AWAY)

b9653e29704542da13c130cf4fb40ff3

LITTLE THINGS

A jam jar with string around the top,

thirty two sticklebacks and minnows caught,

Swimming in the paddling pool in the park,

In my pants with snow falling all around.

 

The secret pond hidden in a hut,

Brick wall and tin-roof

And a special pool inside

Full of frogs and two hundred years

Beyond Erasmus Darwin’s need.

 

A tin bath used as a boat,

On a faraway pond

Long lost to school playing fields…

On the same pond : frozen,

Skating with my shiny shoes…

And where the willow wept

The ice broke, fickle as fate,

And I’m soaked and shoes sodden…

A spanking awaits… For sure.

Little things

Little oddities.

The strangeness only in their significance,

The place they occupy in my memory,

And the shelf-space they deny

Long forgotten memories…

Which may have more meaning.

Copyright Dale Beck 2018

OLD BROWN SLIP-ON SHOES

old-brown-shoes-top-view-29715349

OLD BROWN SLIP-ON SHOES

There they sit,

at the end of your bed,

As you left them.

A hodge-podge of hurry,

Quickly dispersed in the rush

to change into trainers

And quickly out to play.

 

And your bed is stripped back,

The bell-ringing blue plastic sheet,

designed to stop your bed-wetting,

is neatly stacked at the bottom of your bed…

All the detritus of you remains,

but you do not.

 

The smell of you:-

Is the smell of piss.

The memory of you…

is your hot body in my bed,

after an “accident” in yours.

And then the hot wet piss

spreading across the back of my pants, back of my legs…

And there is no-where to hide,

Even on the edge of the mattress

Your pee invades my space.

 

It disturbs me that after forty four years…

These are the memories that stick:-

A pair of broken down heels

on old brown slip-on shoes

and a bed soaked in urine;

A blue electric sheet with a bell…

Which only ever woke me and never you…

But now, nothing will ever wake you.

And memory wanes… but you will always by there…

Somewhere.

copyright Dale Beck 2018

REDEMPTION

GettyImages_96494053.0

REDEMPTION

Minus five but the wind-chill makes it double

and the snow lies to a depth of five inches.

The doorway offers little protection…

A little protection from the wind…

But not the snow.

The snow covers half the sleeping bag

and even his woollen hat…

Has a smattering.

 

It’s only the noise of his teeth

Chattering like old fish-wives,

that alerts you to the fact:-

He’s still alive!

Alive but the cold is in his bones…

Not even old bones,

now there is the rub!

 

He is a boy despite his bristling beard,

and he owns nothing in this world…

Not a thing… but a habit!

And no-one cares, not even his parents,

He has no friends, but a dealer.

 

And this is the great new world…

the great promise of Capitalism…

I know… You may stifle a yawn,

not this old turkey…

yet another strand of socialism…

So I won’t bore you.

But it is wrong,

Horribly wrong,

and I can’t stop caring,

no I can’t stop!

copyright Dale Beck 2018

FILIGREE

400x272

FILIGREE

Intricate filigree chased out with chisel and chimes,

Time-served and time-etched like

an illuminated manuscript.

No cistercian monk sworn to silence,

But a brash and brazier-ed metal basher,

Swearing and cursing like a costermonger…

How do such sweet works come from one so uncouth?

Even the roughest hands can meld beauty,

Even the darkest mind can form pretty thoughts…

And even the crass can gild a lily,

bye and bye,

bye and bye.

Copyright Dale Beck 2018.

BLITHE SPIRIT

BlitheSpirit1_0

BLITHE SPIRIT

Blithely I discover new ways to hurt you,

Of course, if I gave actions thought…

These diffident faults could be avoided,

And I promise to try…

I promise to try.

 

But I am a fool…

A head-space full of bricabrac,

Lofty ideals and punctured pomp,

I tread clumsily,

And I am left leisurely regretting,

My blithe spirit fatuously trumpeting,

my ignorance and banality.

Copyright Dale Beck 2018

MY TOP TEN ELBOW SONGS

elbow-beer

10. One Day Like This

only in at ten because it is ubiquitous, still a brilliant piece of theatre.

9. Grounds For Divorce

8.LIPPY KIDS (BUILD A ROCKET)

7. THE BIRDS

LOVELY SONG.

 

6.STARLINGS

5 THE LONELINESS OF A TOWER CRANE DRIVER

4. LEADERS OF THE FREE WORLD

3.THIS BLUE WORLD

2.NEW YORK MORNING

This makes me cry (as do most Elbow songs, it is the memory of john lennon that gets me)

  1. THE NIGHT WILL ALWAYS WIN

no.1 because it reminds me so much of my grandfather, whose stupid face and bad advice I miss to this day, 27 years after he left this place. These are my top ten elbow songs, just to give people who don’t know Elbow a flavour of what they are missing.

Dale