Bread & Dripping - Joan Etoile

When I was young, food was an essential not a luxury 
With Occupation memories we looked forward to our tea 
We'd quietly put away our hula hoops and stop our skipping 
Then head into the parlour for some tasty bread and dripping 

Renoir voyaged to the Isle of Guernsey in 1883 
Painting rounded nudes down beside the sea 
When he’d captured all those fleshy scenes of skinny dipping  
I imagine he’d head off home for some well-earned ... 

The intrigue of Versailles got sexed up on prime-time TV 
Imagining the shenanigans in the court of Louis X one V 
But when they finished with all that bodice-ripping 
I like to think they’d round it off with some ...

In seedy old London Town, murderers added to the degradation 
Though they perpetrated foul deeds, there’s no insinuation 
That Jack the Ripper, or notorious poisoner evil Dr Crippen 
Turned their chopped up victims into human... 

The moptop Beatles wowed the screaming 60s crowds 
With their modern look and guitars playing so loud 
I’m sure that when they weren’t gigging or day tripping 
John would make them all some lovely ... 

The film Where Eagles Dare, set in World War Two 
Features Nazis, traitors and snowy mountains too 
During the cable car scene, every time so gripping  
I find myself reaching for an extra slice of... 

Of hellraising quartet, actors Burton, Reed and Harris 
O’Toole ended up in Corsica - he’d started out in Paris 
To soak up all that booze that they’d been gulping not sipping  
I bet they still had room for a round of ...

So in these times of lockdown take heart from the above 
Use the time for reflection about all the things you love 
People, places, treasured pets and sneaky afternoon kipping 
And most of all a hearty wedge of good old bread and dripping!

Joan Etoile

Image : ©Kim Connor

S.O.S. (Save Our Statues) - Oscar Milde

Prince Albert with his pier-side view
and Hugo up on Candie’s rock
must tremble, if a stone statue
can tremble when it gets a shock
as, one by one, monuments fall.
If one’s pulled down, what next, them all?

It must be worrying to be
a statue, innocent or not:
the subject of such scrutiny,
regarded by some as a blot
to be reviled, to have to move
because campaigners disapprove.

Things change, we know that, nonetheless,
while change is good, some is less so.
Should we not focus on progress,
move on from wrongs of long ago,
together face a future shared
where threatened statues may be spared?

Oscar Milde

Operation Mincemeat - Stephen A. Roberts

Do you remember
The man who never was
An unnamed corpse
Turned volunteer for the cause

She met him on the subway
Sweetly they held hands
Before his final journey
To foreign lands

A considerate lover
A special friend
She imagined a different life
But it had to end

Floating in a foreign sea
He became alive
And by his dead embassy
Helped to fool the other side

Stephen A. Roberts

Image: Wikipedia

Checking out the Family Tree (Gardner, Le Sauvage, Le Patourel, De La Mare) - Tony Gardner

I wondered where I came from
So I searched my Family Tree
It led down different pathways
And I chose Le Patourel, me
I found branches peopled
By Douzainiers and parish men
And of sailors, maybe pirates
Whose fortunes prospered when
The privateers ruled all the seas
And somehow Piracy was right
The King had said the prize goes
To the strongest in the fight
I left them fighting mercenaries
While I edged along the tree
Through mists of years, of Time
Til on a branch regrettably
I saw a far-off cousin burn
In flames and agony
Called a Witch in ignorance
And tortured cruelly
Now we live an enlightened Life
Our freedoms all hard won
We owe it all to battles fought
By those long dead and gone.

Tony Gardner

Off The Wall - John Carré Buchanan

"Runter von der Mauer"
the order barked to no avail.
Victory atop the Quadriga *
looked down at the multitude.
Water cannon fired, then stopped.
Confused guards stood agog
as gates were thrown asunder.
The stunned crowd
emboldened, found Freedom!
They surged through the gates and danced.
Hands reached high grasping pulling
feet scrabbling, as people climbed
to dance on the wall.
Shouts, cheers, and tears of joy as
revellers wielded hammers and picks
to tear down, to reunite.
Cameras rolled; the world marvelled
as amidst the melee
this symbol of oppression,
where so many lives were lost
was breached by a crowd
of cheering, dancing, Berliners.
One generation on and
barring a line of stone
you'd hardly know it existed,
A nation reunited and
the wall's been well and truly off'd.

John Carré Buchanan

* Chariot and four horse statue located atop the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.