The ‘Stanbridge House’ Anthem
Your sideboard, and that old scuffed chair –
That’s all you’ll need
When you move in there….
“Four-square” walls and “three square” meals
For the sedentary life you’ll lead!
‘Cos – by the time you move in there
(a fact that is well-known)..
Your lifetime’s work is over
And the family has flown..
(No one left to teach now
All the skills we hone;
No-one left to talk to
Now you’re on your own..
No: recalling happy memories
Or doing things together –
No more sweeping snow off pathways, or
Planting bulbs in sunny weather
No more painting awkward ceilings, or
Having carpets laid..
Household jobs all taken care
(we’ve surely got it made”…)
No more cooking Christmas dinners
For the family to share
Or crawling in the attic
For the decorations there
No more mowing lawns in summer
(someone else will do that now!)
We’ll have time to “smell the roses.”
Which we’ve never had – somehow.
“Work” is someone else’s problem
We’ve got time to live at last
And I’ll have time to write my book!
“The future’s brighter than the past.
Edna Sparkes
A House I Knew
I knew its nooks and crannies
And the doors that wouldn’t close
I knew the cold linoleum floors
And how the windows froze…
The ‘skating path’ in winter,
And stiff clothes off the line.
Jack Frost fans on windows
The yard trees smell of pine
The oak well polished table
With lilac in the vase
Carbolic in the kitchen
That had been scrubbed for hours…
I knew its summer glory
With delphiniums in bloom –
The scent of mother’s roses
That filled the sitting room…
The neat lawns in the garden
The stately rows of veg – and
Hollyhocks and sunflowers
Around the garden’s edge…
Gladioli; roses – resplendent through July
And mother’s snow-white washing
Against a sapphire sky:
All this I’ll remember until the day I die.
Edna Sparkes