FAY AND MEMORY.

A BOY AND GIRL IN 1950S LONDON

Fay meets me
in the park
by the swings

Saturday
afternoon
after lunch
(the morning
was the time
of the film
matinee)

she looks sad
wearing her
lemon dress
her blonde hair
in bunches

how are you?
I ask her

Daddy said
not to come
unless I
could name all
Jesus's
twelve disciples

and did you?
I ask her

yes I did

how did you
remember
all the names?

I have to
remember
at school too

I recall
about four
I tell her

what now then?
she asks me
that I’m here?

we can ride
on the swings
or the slide
or the fast
roundabout
or hang on
to the ropes
I suggest

she just shrugs

there's a bruise
on her arm
just above
her elbow

not the swings
or the fast
roundabout
or long slide
or see-saw
she utters

why is that?  

hurts to sit
she tells me

we walk on
through the park
to the road
to the shops

I buy us
2 ice creams
1p drinks
and we stand
watching life
us licking
our ice creams
sipping drinks

I thinking
of baked beans
on warm toast
for my tea

she thinking
of Jesus
of the twelve
disciples

and her dad's
holy rage
if she can't
get them all
in order
not reading
from the page.