Winter 1947 Poem by Roger Hudson

Winter 1947



Newsreels
Of trains doggedly ploughing through feet-high drifts of snow
Of lorries and cars snowed up in blizzards
Abandoned
Food, coal can't get through
The country grinding to a halt

But for us kids
The magic
Of deep crunchy snow
Snowballs hurtling
Snowmen smiling
Through pebble teeth
Toboggans swooshing
Tumbles in soft snow
Woollen gloves caked
Frozen hands painful in front of thawing fire
Hurtful chilblains developing on chilly feet
Deep snow
For the very first time
Lasting for days not hours

Bus to the distant panto
Small bare patches
Rubbed in frosted bus windows
Reveal
Fantastic ferns and feathery trees of frost
Have occupied
Shop window after shop window
As we pass

Run rabbit
Run rabbit
Run, run, run
Sings the pantomime comedian
As we huddle together
In the warm glow
Of theatre lights
And laughing bodies
Till out into the crispy cold white magic world
Again
Secure
In scarves and gloves
Sweaters and coats
And woolly caps
To cold bedroom
And the welcome of stone hot water bottle
In cold bed

Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Topic(s) of this poem: children,hardship,snow,winter
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
It was the year I started Grammar School but we just wrapped up warm and life somehow went on as normal, though we had to keep our coats on in the cold Tudor classrooms with open coal fires to heat them
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