War Memoirs
While lapdogs cock their dandy legs And old men mumble as they snooze, The dust pulls out from underfoot And heat lies thick like layers of ooze.
A lumpish child With a lollipop
Is dribbling down his blouse;-he smears His tetchy in ummie's sun-blotched legs : An incident that leads to tears.
(But see her pleasure in the youngsters Leaping from bounding board and spangling The shimmering quivering air with showering Rainbow fragments gaily jangling Between the pool and the sun's mad glowering !) Awnings extend their sugared stripes And mask with a brow-easing light The sweetly sheltered place. beneath Wheretirls and Gordons dream of night, The tolerant impassive dark Which will not tut the pitch and toss And scuffle in the scrubby park.
A mile above this barbed coast Five hundred boys drone through the air To seek another bristling beach And scatter metal petals there; And lapdogs cock their dandy legs And old men grumble in their nap And dust puffs out from underfoot And Titch suspects he's caught the clap.
IAIN HAMILTON
Previous page
