Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Zoppetto

ABC WEDNESDAY
http://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.com.au/
another Grand Finale of the Alphabet

ZOPPETTO

Come, my love, and dance with me
To an ancient melody.
Let us do a lively jig
While she plays on a thingummy-jig.
Maybe she will sing falsetto
While we demonstrate zoppetto.
If I seem to limp a bit
That is just the way of it.
That was the way  it was invented;
Limping cannot be prevented.
It gives us a rather curious gait,
Half comical and half sedate.
I hop and limp and limp and hop,
Wishing the thrill would never stop.
You're the neatest dancer yet! Oh!
See us dancing a zoppetto.
*
A zoppetto is described as a "medieval Italian limping hop-dance"!

*
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THROUGH A CHILD'S EYES

A gas-mask, hardly a childhood toy!
But then, most of you weren't there.
Hitler's a creature of history;
The War an old affair.
But I was a child of the Second World War,
Born in 1931,
And I have to say I found gas-masks
Quite a lot of fun!
I remember when they were doled-out,
Some time the previous year,
When Hitler invaded Poland
And made it very clear
That he wanted the whole of Europe
Including the British Isles.
He wanted his soldiers to strut our streets
With their jackboots and 'Sieg Heils'.
When we went to collect our gas-masks
A new design was displayed,
A gas-mask for tiny babies
To be used in case of a raid.
They were called 'Mickey Mouses'
Although I'm sad to say
They didn't look like a mouse at all,
Not in any way.
Oh how I loved my gas-mask,
In it's neat little cardboard box!
(Sorry I simply can't recount
Death or Fear or Shocks!)
Sometimes we'd go for little walks
Wearing our precious masks!
Acting as though light-hearted
Was one of motherhood's tasks.
But best of all were the practices
We had to have in school;
Learning to take them off and on
Was part of the Golden rule.
And then came the really lovely part
For all the girls and boys.
If we blew hard into the mouthpiece
We could all make
A RUDE NOISE!

*

6 comments:

Roger Owen Green said...

I have gotten the feel already!
ROG, ABC Wednesday team

RAJI MUTHUKRISHNAN said...

As sprightly a verse as ever!

photowannabe said...

Its always delightful to visit your blog. I never know what to expect.
Great "rimes".
I would never have thought to write a poem about gas masks of childhood.

Leslie: said...

Lilting as I'm reading...

Leslie
abcw team

PhenoMenon, ABCW team said...

Get into the groove !!

PhenoMenon, ABCW Team

Madeleine Begun Kane said...

Two fine poems, one very funny, the other dead serious. Good job!