Food For Thought

No winter postcards of deep snow and bliss No winter postcards of mistletoe kiss Winter was cold, winter was tough Winter was long and we all had it rough No Father Christmas, no presents for us No wide eyed kitten or puppy to fuss Fantasy Christmas, fantasy tree We had to live, through the reality Dad was long gone, the man did his best Till chronic bronchitis, seeped into his chest The work where he toiled, was all he had known But the dust and the dampness had left Mam alone What would befall us, what would we be Who would care for us, if we did not have she Mam did her best for her nine hungry brood I will never forget, there was so little food Mam had her pride but the children came top Broken old cupboards to keep the rooms hot Furniture smashed for the fire was the norm Furniture burned just to keep the kids warm Hard times as a child engraved in my heart The emotions and memories will never depart The hunger, the cold, the anger remain So little food, again and again The times were of hardship, poverty, pain Coats on the bed was the name of the game No warm fancy blankets in my childhood Just old duffle coats and we fought for the hood All of the cooking, from one frying pan Hunched round a fire, nine kids and their Mam All I remember is fried porridge oats Dark dankie bedrooms and old heavy coats All I remember is sugar on bread Nine hungry children is nine kids unfed All I remember is vegetable stew Mostly potato's and then there were few Snottie nosed kids crying hungry and cold What bread there might be would be covered in mould All of the clothing was hand me down stuff Nine children to dress, there was never enough One stocking each and sometimes one shoe In all of my memory I can't recall two Now all of the children, have just what they need Warm clothing, good food and laptop PC Ipods and kindles with mince pies for tea Have they ever heard of the word, poverty A new modern world of I want it for me I want It, I want it, the new Nexus 6 With all its new gizmo's and all its new tricks I want them, I want them, the new Nike Capri 3 I want them, I want them, I want them for me I want it, I want it, the phone that can speak With thousands of apps and things you can tweak I want it, I want it, I want it all Go get me the money from that hole in the wall So why am I angry, so why am I sad So why not accept, who we were, what we had So who wants the hunger, who wants that time If you want to swap childhoods Your not swapping it with mine