"Seventies Boy"

Remember…

That spaceship in the big silver square

Sitting on the bench in the barbers chair

Wearing proper shorts going to school

And always being thought of a fool

Remember…

The huge old terrace & kicking up dust

Mum’s bread & butter pudding with all the crust

Dad’s home made goulash burning my throat

Getting the Woolwich Ferry just to go on a boat

Remember…

Going away to camp with the cubs

Hours with drunk dad stuck outside his pubs

Bonfire nights at the back of the flats

Setting fire to the chute to scare the rats

Remember…

Stamping your feet at the front of the bus

Thinking you’re grown-up learning to cuss

My wellie’s melting on our portable heater

Breaking in next door to rob their meter

Remember…

Kiss chase in the playground annoying the girls

Being a pansy but not wanting their curls

Woolies pick & mix going to steal

Sleepovers at mates…desparate to cop a feel

Remember…

Ruskin Park rocking horse crushing my teeth

Getting battered by my old man for being a thief

Pulling down the Christmas Tree with my Tonka toy truck

Envying my big brother for his football rucks

Remember…

Secretly playing with yourself in the confessional box

Priests probably doing the same in their holy frocks

Shooting your spunk for the very first time

Imagining death for a mortal crime!

Remember…

Sneaking glances at PE to see who had hair on their willie

Seeing girls knickers pretending to laugh silly

Bunking church to go down the park instead

Using collection money for sweets to be fed

Remember…

Going to Santa & the Oxford Street lights

When it was still magical on December nights

Magnificent half term days on a Red Bus Rover

And that trip to Boulogne from the White Cliffs of Dover

So many things to recall, so long ago

But the harshest truth if you want to know

My childhood was poor and I felt alone

Real happy moments cut to the bone.

The thing though that I remember

MOST OF ALL

Being taken into the changing rooms

Following Dulwich Hamlet Reserves

By my Sunday School Teacher

Who played for the team

With my autograph book

For my giant heroes to sign

I was a boy of eight or nine

And that really was my first time

Seeing grown up cocks all laid bare

Flaccid but huge covered in hair

The moment I realised why I hated kiss chase

And all my strange feelings fell into place.

Dulwich Poet-February 2013

(I read a poem called ‘I Remember’ by Tim Wells, in an anthology of his I borrowed, from the Poetry Library, based in the Royal Festival Hall. That is where I got the idea for ‘Seventies Boy’ from)