Remember as a toddler
How you discovered building blocks,
Finger-painted Mollie
And plastacined your frocks;
That strawberry jam was pretty
Mixed with butter on some bread
And ‘though lampshades made lights pretty,
They looked better on your head.
Remember as you grew up
The stories you were read.
You’d point to all the pictures,
Dream of princes once in bed.
Mother’d teach you how to spell
And recite nursery rhymes.
That brightly coloured clock face
That helped you tell the time.
Remember in the classroom
The short stories you would write;
‘Bout Sue & John & Grandpa
And the time you made that kite.
How the teacher made you giggle
And you were always up to tricks
How you learnt of verse and poetry
And played with limericks.
Remember in the sixth form
How you envied others arts;
Made excuses that their futures
Were living in the past.
Your attempts to accept fashion
‘Though you hated all the styles
Your experiments with make-up
Adolescent ways to hide that smile
Remember on that birthday
Gift ideas were being sought
And as much to make a statement
Asked for Chopin to be bought
Expeditions into classics
Breaking teenage mould
At the time the music grated
But it was ‘in’ to be thought old.
Remember that first soiree
Friends discussing theatre days
They didn’t care much for ‘Chekov’,
Nor ‘Shaw’ or ‘Miller’ plays
You bluffed your way through dinner
With agreements and guffaws
Then hurried to buy ‘Time Out’
As you’d never been before.
So remember, now you’re looking,
For that man to share your life.
He should paint, at least like Rembrandt
And as Dickens must he write.
‘Have the fashion sense of Gucci,
Hum in the bath to Bach,
And scribe billet-doux like Shakespeare
In all his greeting cards
The Poet Layabout 