Nothing To Say. Poem by Terry Collett

Auntie took you to the hut
where the wives of the soldiers

met up to chat and drink tea
and eat cakes and you sat in

the chair looking at each of
them in turn wishing time

would go and you could go
back home to your few toys

and play but no Auntie carried
on the talking and the long

conversations were way over
your head and now and then

they’d break into laughter and
some woman’s kid would cry

and she’d say I think she needs
changing and off she’d go wheeling

the pram to another room and
Auntie’d talk to another woman

and you’d lift your eyes ceiling
wards and wonder where Uncle

was fighting and how he would
cope stuck in the hut with women

yakking all the time and one woman
smiled a big goofy smile at you and

offered you a cake and orange juice
but you shook your head and looked

away in silence sulking with no good
thoughts in your mind and nothing to say.