Tony Hargreaves Poet Blank verse

AUSTERE TIMES

Milk bottles we would rinse out and return.
Pop bottles take back to claim the tuppence. 
Kellogg’s cartons collected for the kids
To cut and paste and learn creative art.
Unburnt cinders reclaim from last night’s fire
And add to burn again with today’s coals.
Rinsed food cans collected by rag-bone man.

Blue sugar-bag take back to the Coop
To be filled once more with weighed out sugar.
Cut up old clothes to use as cleaning rags.
Collect carthorse droppings for garden plants.
Newspapers take to chippy for free chips
Or use to roll and twist as fire-lighters.
Naught went to waste in those austere times.

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Tom Cunningham December 21, 2023 at 7:32 AM We mightn't have had much but they were happier times. Tom Tony Hargreaves December 21, 2023 at 11:27 AM Re-use or recycle. Make do and mend. Waste not want not. Twas how it was. Basic standard of living and cold house. No regrets. There was real community spirit then. Perhaps we've lost a lot and gained but little. Tony.