Bonfire Night in Barrie

Drella@washingtonweb.co.uk.....Bonfire Night in Barrie..17 Nov
02

Applebee for both of them cooked.
Baggy came in and looked.
Lanky saw him and shook his head.
Baggy looked, but in the look was dread.
Lanky thought: "More trouble".
'On the bombsite was rubble.
Fireworks and parkin and flame.
Hot potatoes, still raw.
Confrontation recrimination and blame.
Intervention of the law'
Baggy thought he saw something.
His eyes began to sting.
Thought that out of the corner of his eyes...
Lanky hoped no one had seen through his disguise
Something Baggy glimpsed just out of his range.
Lanky, his features, did rearrange.
Baggy saw it was gone, it was a trick of the light.
'Wasn't Rochdale in 69 such a sight ?
Rochdale in 'Technicolor' canal and mills.
Smoking joints and taking pills
Those dark satanic mills had hidden depths.
Stone houses and stairs and steps.
On those paths both danger and wonder.
Sometimes 'Madmen' intent on plunder.
But among those days of terror, girls were there,
Who would sometimes agree to be bare.
In all the Floyd and the Archies and the going mad,
It would have been nice to have a good dad.'
Lanky looked at Baggy again
For a moment he felt the pain
For a moment he wanted to show his love
Then felt there wasn't enough to be proud of
Silently they left together
Out into the snowy weather
In Barrie no bonfires to give a spark
No fireworks, no parkin, only the dark.
But in Barrie Baggy saw terror and wonder combine
The same colours as Rochdale in 1969
Wood and concrete instead of brick and stone
Offices replaced canal and mills Lanky had known
But Baggy could do with a dad the same
Someone who gives love as well and not just blame.

"You'll sit home &; drink all night
They looked too weird... it served them right
......
Ever tell your kids, you're glad that they can think?
Ever say you loved 'em? Ever let 'em watch you drink?
Ever wonder why your daughter looked so sad?
It's such a drag to have to love a plastic Mom &; Dad"
Frank Zappa 1967