As a Kid 1950

As a kid 

I used to wonder

what the boy 

who lived down the lane 

made of the black wool 

a whole bagful 

according to the nursery rhyme. 

What the heck 

would he do 

with a bagful of black wool? 

Nursery rhymes like that 

puzzled my young mind. 

I lived with my parents 

and grandparents in Nunhead 

not far from Rye Lane. 

Did the boy live 

down that lane? 

And what about the master

and the dame; 

where did they live? 

And I never saw 

a single sheep 

near up or down the lane. 

Unless it was 

an invisible sheep 

and didn't it belong 

to Bo-Peep?