***
Da-dad-da-daaaa-
The US Cavalry had arrived
just in time to rescue
the homesteaders from a fate worse than death.
Roy Rogers fired into the air
in exultation
as reinforcements crested the hills
to swoop down and free his sweetheart
from the evil clutches of the Sioux.
The Redskins were circling,
wreaking dastardly torments
on the wretched creature bound to the totem;
whoopin’ and a hollerin’ a war dance-
“Come on you lot, mam sez we’re ‘avin’
our picture took“
Gill's shrill voice penetrated;
freeze framed the action-
Tumbleweed and cacti fractured and faded,
the totem morphed into a silver birch
part of the copse at the top of the field;
on that English Summer Sunday afternoon.
The grainy black and white
rag-tag family group re-emerged,
my reminiscing eyes re-focused.
I smiled fondly as
the beginings of rebellion resonated,
then gradually crackled
into a million Whispers
that echoed across
the long lost decades.
Comments
mykle | December 29, 2008 - 09:00
As kids we played Japs and Commandos - probably even less PC than Cowboys and Indians. It was a good excuse to exercise your imagination as you crawled about in the long grass of the long English Summer.
Nowadays I doubt kids would be allowed to go off...
on their own and they probably wouldn't want to anyway -
instead playing on their XBOX or WII, needing far less imagination and getting very little exercise and fresh air.
Already people drive to scenic spots to gaze at them from the safety of their cars... soon they will content themselves with looking at them on their TV and we will have taken one more step away from nature and one more step toward electronic dreams.
In later years to fondly reminisce a world which still had trees and was safe safe enough to go into without an armed guard and an oxgen mask :O)