Thursday, September 15, 2011

Idle Jack


SEPIA SCENES
IDLE JACK

It's odd how emotions linger
Long after they should be dead.
Here's a jolly picture,
In which I'm looking sad instead.
It all happened sixty-five years ago
Yet I still feel the pain!
I was in my dreadful teens
And I thought that I was plain.
I so longed to be beautiful,
I felt I was dead-beat.
I felt that people shied away
If they met me in the street.
Of course, I was merely average,
Merely run-of-the-mill,
But young people suffer dreadfully
And, for sure, they always will.
Here we are acting a pantomime,
'Aladdin' I think it was,
And this compounded my suffering;
Yes, I suffered because
I wanted to be the Princess;
I wanted a leading part;
I wanted to wear attractive clothes
Right from the very start.
But there was Mary, the village belle,
Looking supremely pretty.
(Later on she 'married money'
And moved into the city!)
And there am I on the front row
Sitting in a scarf and hat,
With a moustache painted on my lip!
How disgusting was that!
Of course, I've had a happy life
And it's foolish to look back,
But I feel my pain in this photograph,
For I was 'Idle Jack'.
*

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I'D LIKE TO THANK.......

I'd like to thank the Chance Encounter that brought me into being!
A creature that's been walking, singing, laughing, crying, seeing
For over eighty years, and hopes to live a good few more!
Before another chance encounter finally slams the door.
Of all the sperms and all the eggs washing-around back then!
Of all the genes that turn us into women or, maybe, men!
Of all the tragedies occurring after we're conceived!
Of all the life that gets snuffed-out and cannot be retrieved!
Of all the accidents of birth that mean a life is marred!
Of all the terrible incidents that mean a life is scarred!
Of all....... there are so many ways I could have been switched-off!
War, and accident, and crime and even whooping-cough!
Yet here I am, surviving and not yet even tottery!
Yes, I've been lucky. Thank you Chance! I think I've won the lottery!

*
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VISIT ME AT
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7 comments:

Marie said...

A lovely post both in picture and words.

Arnab Majumdar said...

Have you heard The Sunscreen Song? I think you'll like it :) Do give it a listen... this poem reminded me a lot of that song...

Cheers,
Arnab Majumdar on SribbleFest.com

jabblog said...

It's illogical but oh so human to relive the pains and embarrassments of earlier times. We all do it, I'm sure.
I liked Chance - I often reflect on that. Both my parents had diptheria as small children but survived when so many others died. I think it really was a case of survival of the fittest.

Kodjo Deynoo said...

That is long sixty years, yet with time it is as light as the winds passing, soon long gone

Tatjana Parkacheva said...

Beautiful post.

Regards!

Kay L. Davies said...

I enlarged the photo and looked at all the faces and thought, "Front row, left" and there you are.
Congratulations on achieving a grand old age despite all the dangers lurking pre- and post-conception, pre-and post-birth, in war, in Africa, in Australia ...well, maybe not so much in Australia as in Africa. But good for you, Brenda, you are a wonder. How did the Princess turn out, by the way? I'd guess her life is/was dull compared with yours.
— K

Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

Anonymous said...

i hope you have learned to love yourself for who you are or you lead a very long sad life.