Do you ever think what is Poetry all about?
Some people like it all to ryme, Other’s dont mind if it just comes along a nice even way,
Let me explain,
Ive given the readers a good back ground to my birth place (Merseyside) and the fact I lived in a slum area,
Not that we kids minded After all it was our home and all we had ever known,
I did point out it was very much an Irish populated street and most families had a gang of kids,
At the time of living there 1949yr I did have a younger brother two yrs younger than myself,
We we’re so different, ie he was very thin (a bit like a stick insect) and very pale skin, bright blond hair and one eye brown & one eye blue,
We’re as i had brown hair and brown eye’s plus i was a bit more on the meaty side “not fat or any thing such as that " But a bit more on the bone you might say”
My Brother was called Robert but known as robby" he was nothing like me in anyway,
He could not ride a scooter (Youk now one foot on the ground and one foot on the platform and away you went, But Robby would hold the handel-bars and run at the side of the scooter,
I tried to show him how to ride the scooter, But with no hope of him learning,
The same went for his 3 wheeled bike, He never put his feet on the foot grips, No both feet on the ground,
But he was happy to play by himself and talk to all sorts of insects ,
As the years went on and we both got older things did not change,
I learnt to swimm Robby did’nt
I played football both for the school team and in our street,
Robby didnt like contact sports,
The nearest he came to a football was when “like most older brothers” during the school holiday time
(6 weeks) we older kids had our younger brothers /sisters glued to our sides, and so Robby and gaynor “both the same age” we’re used as goal post,
When I was 11rs old and Robby 9 yrs, My school started to offer kids a weeks holiday using the YMCA , All taken care of by the schools teachers,
Walking during the day and mixing with other kids once at the YMCA, of an evening,
I had a news paper round morning & evening deliveries and a job on the local market gardens from 9AM UNTIL 4PM and all for a shilling an hour,
All the money went to pay for my holiday, I’d never been on a holiday as we’re we lived nobody went on holidays, So it was a chance of a life time,
When the time came to go on the holiday we all had to meet at the ferry crossing platform,
I got up and as I slept in what then was known as a three quarter bed with Robby
he woke up and wanted to know why I was up early on a sunday morning,
I told him I was going on Holiday and he wanted to come, it was about then he started to cry,
I told him I’d bring him something back, And then I dashed off with my pack to get the Ferry across the mersey,
The week shot by and I really enjoyed every thing about the holiday, All the chats about the area’s we’d walked passed, the eating self made foods, (And even washing the dishes after dinner etc,
On the last evening and knowing we all had to be up early,
I counted how much I had left, and then went into the Tuck shop and looked for something for Robby,
I found a plastic purse with Inian stitching all around it, and bought it,
The morning was all rush rush, and then the mini bus arrived and we all got on and off we went to get the boat back from Wales to Liverpool,
I noticed the staff kept looking at me and then the Head Master said Daniel I need to have a word with you, “Come with me,”
He took me to the back of the Boat and told me I’d be going home with him for a few days ,
I asked why?
And he told me that My brother had died,
Well I did not know what to say or what was expected of me, and until we got to Liverpool I was kept away from the rest of the kids while the staff took turns in sitting with me,
I found out that both my brother & my cousin had drowned in the River Mersey, They’d been skimming stones across the waves When the tide turned and cut them off,
It was me who’d shown them how to skimm stones across the waves and give a name of who the furthest one was for ie This ones for me Mum or this ones for me Nan etc,
I to this very day have never really forgiven myself for showing a cheap pass time when your on the shore,
Poem
Did you throw a stone for me,
I worked so hard for that first holiday
Newspaper round and Market gardeing,
Always saving and never spending
That was the way,
It was our first time we did’nt do anything together
It was an adventrue for us both
Me walking the hills and mountains And the YMCA,
But we did’nt know we’d said our last goodbye that day
You played a game I’d showed you, Without Danger, So I thought,
One you could do on your own, Just use a skill throwing a stone,
Make it bounce as many times as you can
And dedicate that stone to Anyone you like, Me, Mum, Dad or our Nan,
Ive thought many times, Did you as you continued to throw,
Have any idea the Tide was turning and coming in behind you?
Nice and slow? (I hope you did’nt know)
Your life was minutes away from the end and I was about to say goodbye to not only my Brother
but to a furure friend,
Had I been there we’d have thrown stones together “But” with a very different end
I’d have thrown a stone for you, “A seven boucer” you would see,
But did you throw any stones just for me?
Sorry,