Free school milk

“Drink your milk!” our teachers used to say,
but our milk bottle crates had stood all day,
in the years of free milk, out in the sun.
There were bits on the top, yuk – not much fun!

Just Desserts

I found a better one. So there!
I’d had much more than my fair share!
You caught him, hook, line and sinker,
but you really caught a stinker!

The Truth about Retirement

The truth about retirement is
that it’s not so good as it is cracked up to be.
Everything you want has its limits,
comes with a price and hardly ever free.

Leisure or Pleasure?

I was wandering alone in the park
just before it was getting dark,
when a passing thought came to me
how lucky birds were to be free.
I wanted then to stop and stare
at a pony, and a grey mare,
and I quote a very famous ode
which came into mind as I strode.
I asked aloud, with no-one there,
‘What is this life if full of care?’

Grantchester, Oh Grantchester

With apologies to Rupert Brooke

Just now the lilacs aren’t in bloom
all before his little room,
and from his flower beds I think
have gone the carnation, and the pink,
and in his borders well I know
poppies and pansies no longer blow.

Grantchester, oh Grantchester!
There should be peace and quiet there.
Rupert Brooke would have a fit
if he went back to visit it.