Some people

Some people

Will always believe

The world is flat

I’m not sure what to think about that

It used to be,

When it was a tabletop

With toy soldiers

And Dinky toy cars

Motorised doodads

For signals

A train that ran in circles

Delivering the mail

Dropping off this and that

A carrot for lunch

I could fit a few sprouts

In the coal truck

When they were in season.

Although it came off the rails

When I ran it too fast,

It was always on time

For supper.

Outside the window

In a straight line

From my house

To the corner

A gnarled old Plane tree grew

He was always talking

To his neighbour

I know

Because he spoke to me

Every time I walked by.

He hated cars

They were unstable

He said.

Prone to swerving off the road

He had been sideswiped

So many times

Stuck as he was

His roots bound

With concrete and paving slabs.

All he could do was lean away

But this led him into conflict

With his neighbour

A rather fetching Cherry Blossom.

He said she was all front

And had a terrible temper

But she smelled so good

He could forgive her anything.

The world was round

And he laughed

So loud

It was like thunder

“If it were flat, the cars

Would all fall off the end,

Which I would be happy about

But they keep coming around,

So round it is.”

He used a big word

‘Counterintuitive’

To describe his feelings on the subject

Which I failed to understand

Back then

But have come to realise

It means that just

Because we think we are looking in a straight line,

Light bends

With gravity,

So says Einstein.

It took a while to grasp that one

But everything is distorted

By something

And a jigsaw puzzle

Of the globe on a tabletop

Is no guarantee

The world is flat.

But I can still plant a

Union Jack

On the summit of Mount Everest

And say I was there first

Like all the cocksure

Little baby boomers.

Thankfully,

Some of us grew up

To realise

Few things are what they seem.