Once there was a War

     
It must have been late August      
I was only eight, near nine,      
my brother in the pram      
passed Jaconelly's ice cream      
on Scarborough's southern shore;      
there just for the day.      
     
Dad pointed out to sea      
“Look he said, look there”      
like a cigar it rested      
on the sea, or so it seemed      
silver, shining in the evening      
sun ,low, behind the castle cliff.      
Dad said it was Graf Zeppelin      
but now I read it wasn't      
just another airship with no name.      
checking on the aerials, snooping.    
      
I knew what they were ,they tell      
us now it was a secret, but I was eight      
they were ‘radio location masts’      
to warn about a war. It was all      
so exciting, ice creams and candy floss      
the Yorshireman and speed boats      
kites, white chocolate, dodgem cars,      
clanking steam trains leather straps      
to close the windows ,      
Victoriana, wood clerestory-windows      
bus and home at nine and tired,      
     
Paper crosses on the window panes      
to stop the flying glass      
sand buckets  by the door      
stirrup pump and ladder      
Everything  . . .incase        
 Dad in the Observer Corps      
On duty, most at night.    
     
Home with Mam      
Underneath the table      
when the siren went.      
But days were all the same      
Butterflies and rabbits      
Potatoes in their rows      
As we dug for victory    
.      
It seemed to work      
Our shoes  soled with cycle tyres,      
socks darned and lumpy      
knitted on four needles      
unpicked to use again.      
     
They bombed the other end  
 killed a dog and felled a house     
burnt down the old Guild Hall,      
apart from that we went to school      
And never had bananas.