TEA BEFORE ONE WEDNESDAY 1956
Janice's gran
had ask me to tea
after school.
I was sitting
in the sitting room,
(Janice had gone
to the loo).
You're Janice's best friend,
her gran said,
and I don't mind her
being with you
because you
are a good boy,
and I know your mother
would not let you
run wild or do silly things
like some children
around here,
and she always has you
dressed in clean clothes,
and feeds you well,
and because I am
responsible for Janice,
and need to know
she is in good company,
and not go on bomb sites
or knock on doors
and run away
or throw stones
through windows
of deserted houses
or take coal
from the coal wharf,
and when she is with you
I know she'd not
do those things.
I sat there listening to her,
waiting for tea to begin,
hoping there would be
good cake, and maybe
nice sandwiches
and maybe(although
I doubted it) coke or Tizer,
and hoped Janice
would not mention
going on the bomb site
in Draper Road
where we climbed
into an upstairs room
(hole in the roof),
and it smelt of piss
and dampness,
but we looked around still,
and hoped she'd
not mention us
(me mainly)
catapulting those window out
of that bombed out house
on the bomb site
behind the cinema.
Her gran was still talking,
and I smiled when she stopped,
and she said,
now some tea,
and Janice appeared back,
and sat next to me,
and smiled at me,
and her gran said,
I've just been telling Benny
about you, and what
you're not to do,
and I think Benny
is a very good boy
not getting you into trouble
on bomb sites or stone throwing
and things.
I sat with bated breath,
and Janice said,
yes he is good like that,
but sometimes we...
but her gran had gone
into the kitchen
to get the tea,
and it was just us
sitting there,
and I shook my finger
and said,
say nothing about the things
we've done less or more,
or she'll tan
your backside
as she did before.
