Gerry's Here

Get up bring your book and blanket Through the hall way cross And through the kitchenette Over dark veranda down the garden stairs Enter the shelter and cuddle up wet Feet in the bathtub ready to dive Four huddle and cuddle together alive Shivering shaking and not from the weather The wooden door’s shut and the sandbags are piled Candlelight flickers on eyes going wild Grabbing the book opening page Clinging to riders in soft purple sage Some of the words are easy to spell Others emerge like a slow learning spell Soon I am lost from the crumping and bumping Riding a horse in a ten gallon hat Till the siren’s all clear puts an ending to that Back up the stairs under yellow red sky Back into bed under covers to dry Nowt now to worry we’ve dunnit before Such a big boy now well into four Hid under the covers Learning to snore This is a blast from the past Nightmares were the first horses I rode Almost into puberty Every house and flat in Knotty Ash had a backyard bomb shelter Further into the city they were communal usually next to a tramstop As were the cement water tanks Covered of course to keep them clean for the Home Guard The memory’s as true as I can recall America was purple