Friday 8 April 2011

tanka and micropoetry (memories) by gennepher

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neapolitan
ice cream
wafer
a memory
of yellow cornfields

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home-made
Victoria
butter-cream raspberry sponge
a memory
of grandma's high teas

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a ninety-niner ice cream
I bought  in the park
for tuppence
a memory
of how I used my bus fare home from school

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orange juice
and
biscuits
a memory
of an elderly couple with a dog

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my place on the bench
opposite a girl
with a perpetually snotty nose
a memory
of school lunches

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a wicker basket
of home-made cakes
covered with tea towel
a memory
of a walk upstream

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home-made liquidised soup
splattered
on walls and ceiling
a memory
of a meal in a commune

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lashings of custard
on
my pudding
a memory
of kind dinner ladies

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mouldy white bread
and soup powder
in tap water
a memory
of a kind girl called Robin

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eating peas
straight
from the pod
a memory
of Granddad's vegetable garden

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fried eggs
nearly all
double yolks
a memory
of collecting eggs on the farm

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sloes
eaten
from the hedgerow
a memory
of a cold frosty morning

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my
mother's
stew
I remember
hating sliced carrots

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three tier
cake stand
full of cakes
I remember
Lyons Corner Houses

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on the moors
cold water
and tea bags
I remember
all the gas escaping from the calor gas cylinder

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beef paste sandwiches
generously laced
with sand
I remember
Brighton beach

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walking a long way
with the picnic basket
then the sun went in
I remember
my mother's bad temper

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a blood stained parcel
wrapped
in brown paper and string
I remember
grandma posting us a chicken at Xmas

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a crusty bun
pat of butter
and oxo crisps
I remember
lunch for a shilling

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a salad
all the ingredients arranged
picturesquely on the plate
I remember
the first meal John made me

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gas stove
exploded
when I couldn't light it
I remember
first cup of tea I tried to make for my parents

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white ice cream
with
hot chocolate custard
I remember
my favourite Sunday lunch pudding

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eating a roast chicken
pulling it apart
with my fingers
I remember
a fancy dress medieval banquet

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chocolate sponge
with
green mint custard
I remember
my favourite school pudding

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rice pudding
with
figs
I remember
my least favourite school pudding

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in the hedgerows
sun warmed
raspberries
I remember
a walk with a friend

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apples
red
and green
I remember
granddad's old gnarled apple orchard

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at the picnic
orange juice
poured into tumblers
I remember
the wasps joining in

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a box
of Cadburys Milk Tray
all for me
I remember
my reward for finding a lost purse

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a full
two pint
orangeade bottle
I remember
a urine sample a classmate took to a medical exam

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a huge enormous
dead black spider
in my lettuce
I remember
screaming one school lunchtime

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fish and chips
on
Bournemouth seashore
I remember
watching the sun go down

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one third pint
bottles
of milk
I remember
drinking through a paper straw at school morning break

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a few biscuits
from each tin
in a white paper bag
I remember
the grocer's shop with bare wooden floors

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sweets
for
a farthing each
I remember
my farthing with the jenny wren on it

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a silver sixpence
into
a bubble gum machine
I remember
the Beatles cards that came with it

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fish and chips
in
a transport café
I remember
a video machine with Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Band

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blackberries
soaking in salt water
the maggots floating to the surface
I remember
my mother-in-laws blackberry pie

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chicken feathers
flying
in the breeze
I remember
grandma plucking the chicken for lunch

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