A Remembered Summons

Cherry

By Angusfolklore

Sun, 05 Dec 2021
  • 438 reads
4 comments
 

Post took longer to arrive in those 

black-and-white days decades ago.

The Royal Mail had to fight through

packs of wolves across the

'Here Be Dragons' landscape.

A month or more for delivery

was not uncommon,

leaving the recipient half crazed

with anticipation, 

albeit letters came twice a day.

 

My dark letter showed up unbidden

eight days after Christmas.

The smiling postman wondered what

was so important that it had to be

signed for at our humble house,

more used to junk mail and sad

second class demands.

When he left (still dark at 7.30),

I opened it and the blood

drained from my winter face.

 

 

Certificate U
Poem
Dark Fiction and Rimes

Comments

Submitted by celticman on

ah, bad news, a summons to hell, ah, well, black and white days are in the past. 

 

Submitted by Angusfolklore on

There's an amalgamation of strange things about the 1970s in my mind that seems to be growing. Was it sinister somehow that we got two posts per day?

 

Submitted by airyfairy on

It seems incredible now that we got two posts a day. And before that, you could send a letter in the morning, it would be delivered in the lunch time post, and your invitee would come round for tea at three o'clock. So I've been told.

The 1970s were a very strange time. It's only looking back that you realise how very odd they were. When I see old British films from the time, it still seems very much like a post-war Britain, despite the 'swinging' sixties. A lot of stuff changed, but a lot didn't.

Anyway - I really liked your poem! The ambiguity of the last line (and the title) works very well - we are very intrigued at the nature of this summons. 

Submitted by Angusfolklore on

You've put me in mind of another strange aspect of modern Britain.. the Byrds' biographer Johnny Rogan (recently departed) lived in a slum dwelling with his family in central London while Swinging London... erm swung regardless a few miles away