Jul. 9, 2017
Poem
94 Ranelagh Road Autumn 1947
Peter Clarke
His birth home - three
stories over basement -
up ten granite steps
to the front door
Victorian grandeur
- now a tenement -
stairs and landings
oil lamp lit at night
A country family
below stairs
would bring turf
- a lorry load
tipped over
wrought iron
spiked railings
onto the grass
The boy - aged three
in tiny dungarees
equipped with a
net shopping bag
traipsed turf
sod at a time
down the long
narrow garden -
in through the
darkened flat to
be well stacked
out in the yard
He steady marched
as the day went on
through the drizzle -
on important work
Later in the evening
- exhaustion then fever
Next day an ambulance
- his first near death
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