SOUTH BANK 1959.

A BOY AND GIRL IN LONDON IN 1959

I went to watch tennis
with Fay
on the South Bank
by the Thames
(amateurs but good)

we sat in the stands
it was warm
the sun was out
in the sky
like a big boy
showing its muscles

I shouldn't be here really
Fay said
I should be home
studying the letters
of St Paul
Daddy wants me
to know them by heart

why's that
why learn them
by heart?

he said
the nuns at school said
I don't seem
to know them
that well

do you?

I thought I did
but he thinks not
she said

we watched the players
and the tennis ball
going left to right

I only learn by heart
what I like
my old man tests me
sometimes on
who was in what film
because he's
a film buff
but he don't worry none
if I don't know
and I usually don't
or I pretend I don't
because I'm too lazy
to tell him

o you are naughty
she said
my father wants me
to know things
wants me to know
the Pater Noster in Latin

Pater Noster?
What the heck is that
when it's at home?

it's the Lord's Prayer
but in Latin

o that
I know that mainly
because we have it
day after day in assembly
at school
I said

we do too
but in Latin
she said

there was cheering
from those around us
as a player
won his match
and we clapped too
even though we'd not
been watching
that closely

fancy ice cream?
I asked

sure that'd be nice
she said

so we walked along
the South Bank
to some guy in white
who was selling some
from an ice cream van
and bought two

and stood by the Thames
and watched
the water and boats
and such passing
us by

she reciting
the Pater Noster in Latin
I thinking
of pirate ships
at sea
which were
really tug boats
below me.