Dear reader,
I am responding to wonderful blogger David J. Bauman’s blog on Blackberries and Remembering Galway Kinnell. I told David I had written a poem on Blackberries. I have added two more of my poems from Childhood past times
Blackberries
I see the empty jar where the blackberries were
Idle on its own, redundant till next time.
My mother is in the kitchen singing while she bakes.
I know this is Mam’s favorite room
for she is always happy here.
The plump purple blackberries smell so sweet
encased in their coat of pastry good enough to eat.
Her floury hands make clouds of dust
her nails are encrusted with dough,
five hungry faces moan
“How much longer must we wait?”
as we sit at the table in Mam’s favorite room.
The oven is opened, the heat flushes
our faces to bright red as we wait to be fed.
The juices of the fruit leak out from the tart
as she cuts six slices and pours “Ideal milk”
From a tin onto our plates which are now licked clean.
As we giggle and make fun of each others purple tongues.
Sat in Mam’s favorite room surrounded in warmth but most of all love.
Julie Pritchard 2006
Sunday evening Ritual
“In!” we hear the voice from up the street
“In now!”
As the Sunday evening sun is slowly going down.
I drag my feet along the ground
The bosh is waiting while we undress
Ow! I cry has my head hits the hot tap.
The geezer as been glowing; while we were out playing.
The clean smelling carbolic oblong soap is in my hair
up my nose and everywhere.
Rubbed dried skin is red raw which matches the soap.
All clean and lobster pink, now we don’t stink.
I see the metal object glinting
through the rays of the downing sun.
Sat on the floor while Mam “checks for chickens”
She says.
The weapon is now in her hand
the sharp prongs grate through my hair.
As the derback comb hacks at my scalp.
All clear, Mam shakes the talc onto my sleepy body.
The cleaning ritual of Sunday evening is forgotten.
As I lay dreaming.
Julie Pritchard 2006
Bluebells
Dancing to natures tune
moving their pale lilac heads.
Liken to a tingling of a bell.
The heavy scented aroma invites
and entices you to possess.
I kneel down, pull the sticky stems
out of mother earth, they slide
into my hands, bunches of them
lay like a baby across my arms.
Their pretty heads tickle my downy hair.
I hurry home with my gift of plenty
to give to my Mam.
She will put them in the jam jar
that has been idle since blackberry picking in the autumn.
I sniff the jar, the sweet fruity scent still lingers.
Now green stems stand with their purple heads
drooping in their sadness.
For they have been taken from
their habitat and put into mine.
“Bluebells” is in my book Butterfly Kisses and a Bee Sting Mind
2013
All rights Julie Pritchard
