BOYHOOD IN Consett

I was born in Consett,

Land of ice and snow

Ten months of the year was winter,

Didn’t you know?

We had to wear wellies and gloves

Nearly all year through

The sun appeared twice a year

When the sky was blue.

Consett then was linked with

Iron and steel

The men worked long hard shifts,

It seemed unreal,

The chimneys emitted great clouds

Of dust and smoke,

The air was foul,

It was anything but a joke.

The washing on the clothes lines

Turned from white to grey

The housewives had laboured long,

It spoiled their day,

The horse-driven carts with coal

Came down the street,

Our stone houses were cold,

The coal a source of heat.

The war was on,

For hours we queued for food

Sometimes supplies ran short,

In vain we’d stood

We had to find cover on hearing

The siren’s wail

We might have been bombed,

Hitler was on our tail.

We went to the cinema,

No TV in the house

Watched cowboys and Indians,

Popeye, Mickey the Mouse

We didn’t have much in our pockets

Except a few sweets

But going to the pictures then

Was the best of all treats.

The Reverend John Stephenson, Sunderland

AUTUMN TINGES

The leaves on the trees are changing now

To burnished gold, red and brown

Likened to the dancing flames in the grate

Soon they will come fluttering down.

One overnight frost will interrupt

And send them into shock

No longer will the trees take up sap

And so their yearly work is done.

Now they are bereft and lone

Standing stark all winter through

Waiting for the warming springtime

Their task to start anew.

Elizabeth Sayers, Spennymoor

SLITHER HITHER

After dark slimy slugs,

round the garden do slither,

Visiting tender, young plants

chomping hither and thither

Now gardeners get annoyed

at these unwelcome guests,

Employing cunning ways to nobble

these nocturnal pests.

Now there’s an old-fashioned trap

involving a dish of stale beer,

But is it designed to dispatch them

or is it meant to cheer?

One would imagine after slurping,

the slugs would feel quite tiddly,

And wearing a silly smile,

make their way home rather giddily!

PA Dee, Darlington