BEING MRS EARP 1958

KIDS IN LONDON IN 1958 AND THEIR IMAGINATIVE PLAY

Lydia
wants to go
out skipping

her skip-rope
but there's rain
coming down

outside of
her window
Gloria

her sister
is snoring
on the bed

behind her
her boyfriend
(Gloria's)

is asleep
beside her
mouth open

in a wide
oval shape
her brother

Hem is out
getting wet
good job too

she muses
watching rain
pouring down

she wonders
if Benny
is outside

(he's the boy
in the flat
whom she likes

both of them
9 years old)
she goes out

from her room
passes down
the passage

and opens
the front door
and looks out

at the rain
the milkman
shelters out

in the door
of the man
with the large

boxer dog
LYDIA
Benny calls

out to her
from the high
balcony

of the flats
where he lives
she sees him

he's waving
come on up
he bellows

I'll get wet
if I come
she replies

go along
by the side
up the stairs

he tells her
she hadn't
thought of that

so she runs
by the flats
by her own

up the stairs
and along
the narrow

balcony
where Benny
is waiting

watching rain
falling down
what you doing?

she asks him
nothing much
he replies

what about
playing chess
in the flat?

he asks her
don't know how
she replies

what about
Ludo then?
seems boring

can't we play
something else?
she asks him

you can be
Mrs Earp
the wife of

Wyatt Earp
Benny says
and help me

shoot badmen
in gun fights
she agrees

and they go
in the flat
where his mum

is making
mincemeat pie
just playing

at cowboys
Benny says
to his mum

his mother
nods her head
smiling at

Lydia
the small thin
girl who looks

underfed
with dull hair
flowing down
from her head.

Author's Note

PHOTO BY COLIN O@BRIEN