Somebody put a wall

Somebody put a wall

On a football field

A skinny boy chasing a through ball

Ran into it, full tilt

Split his forehead wide open.

Blood stained the mortar

Alongside

Where a spider sat, looking startled

At the home invasion.

It was a good wall

Just in the wrong place

Is all.

His dad took him to the doctor

Who lived on Church Lane

Stitched him up

Whilst he sat,

(The boy, not the Doctor)

Straight-backed

Trying not to be tearful,

On a wooden kitchen chair.

His was the biggest house in the village

Made of granite

“As solid as a house in Aberdeen”

So said doctor McCrae.

(He was a Scot after all)

“Built to withstand the weather.”

It was going nowhere in a hurry

Which was fine as he lived and died there.

His son is the local doctor now

He built a new house

To a modern design

It will be replaced soon enough.

The old doctor’s kitchen was fitted with an Aga

And a double oven

The boy enjoyed a bacon sandwich

At the table

In front of an Inglenook

With a big coal fire, glowing red,

Whilst the doctor and his dad discussed politics

It was an unfair fight

But united in division

And both remained, happily, on the right side

Of the divide at the end.

A village needs some kind of concordance

To survive,

The walls need to be strong enough

To protect

But not built so high as to prevent

People from passing the time of day.

The boy had a neighbour

Who made suet puddings

With apple and rhubarb,

When he got home

With his head wrapped up

In a crepe bandage,

Blood stains on his shirt,

The one he liked to wear

With the number ten on the back,

She handed him a bowl over the wall,

She didn’t even have to stand on tiptoes.

He could make out the shape of a breast

Beneath the pinafore dress

And was surprised at the funny feeling

It gave him.

Perhaps he was concussed

But not enough to ‘pass’ on the pudding,

Which was good,

Although not quite as good

As his mother’s.

Times were changing

Every day there was something new

To look forward to

And slowly but surely

The walls were coming down,

Either that

Or he got better at avoiding them.