SHOPPING FIRST 1955
Helen's mother said,
to get the shopping first,
then to go see Benny,
so Helen climbed down
the stairs with a handful
of coins, and a shopping list,
and along the street
to the grocer shop,
and waited there
behind Mrs Folkes
who had the look
of grim death
on her features,
and the smell of something,
Helen couldn't decide,
on her old fur coat,
and waiting there
she looked
at the small area
of sweet jars on the shelves,
all sorts of sweets
from fruit gums
to sherbet lemons,
and those Flying Saucer things
she liked to suck,
and she sighed because
she didn't have enough money
for even one,
not and get Mum's
shopping too,
and the shop assistant
served Mrs Folkes,
and that meant
Helen was next in-line,
and held the coins tightly,
thinking of meeting Benny
afterwards, and to go
some where, but Benny
didn't say where,
and she thought of him
his hazel eyes,
and brown hair,
and that quiff of hair
in front, and wondered:
where we'll go?
She mused,
last time they went
to Camberwell Green,
and saw shops,
and the hospital
Benny was born,
and before that
they'd been
to the herbalist shop,
and it rained,
and they stood there
watching the rain fall,
and Benny said
about some battle
where it'd rained,
but the place
or name
she couldn't recall.
