Hassam
SATURDAY CENTUS
suggested the theme.
APRIL SHOWERS
I remember the tide of optimism; Summer was on its way.
Winter was receding; April heralded May.
As a girl I felt the sap rising higher, ever higher
As though everything in Nature was working to conspire
Against greyness, cold and lethargy, against discipline and school!
Then, every year it seemed the same, I became an April Fool;
While my heart was singing Summer songs down came the April Showers,
Battering the brave young leaves, decapitating flowers!
'Not yet!' the showers seemed to say; 'You still have a way to go.
Don't you feel a little chilly? We may even turn to snow!'
Was it good for my soul, maybe, to cope with disappointment,
When Summer made a date with me and then missed the appointment?
June, July and August still waved a beckoning finger,
But Winter kept a strangle-hold, determined it must linger.
And yet, that very fickleness was part of the Springtime joy.
Yes, April could be tantalising, teasing us, being coy.
But here, in another country, where Springtime just strolls in,
Where hardly anything marks the time when the warmer months begin,
I remember April Showers with a rush of real affection
And my heart is on a journey in a Northerly direction.
*
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SILVER CURVES
Spied in a shop window in a little country town,
Where Fashion wasn't high on the agenda.
I saw this silver corset, all set-around with flowers;
It had an air of quite voluptuous splendour.
It seemed from another era, Victorian maybe,
When waists were small and bosoms quite pronounced.
When curves were in, and skinny girls were something else again
And anything less than an 'armful' was denounced.
The young girls passed the window, in their T-shirts and their jeans
And scarcely gave the scene a second glance,
But I was back in bye-gone days , when a lady filled her card
With suitor's names who asked her for a dance.
*
