Yesterday Poem by Daphne Grant

When shops held no bananas and orange were rare
But when a copper spoke to you: you simply had to care.
When the teacher said, “be quiet” the silence could be heard,
Now everyone is shouting and no one hears a word.

They now have CCT cameras every blooming where
But no one sees when crime is done: and no one seems to care.
Chocolate was short, and butter even rarer,
But the motor car was scarcer.And space was everywhere.

Hopscotch in the street, was simply not a crime,
But now they send a copper out to scold a girl of nine.
Don’t dare play at conkers, because you might get hurt.
The simple things we did then, they cannot do today.
The ipod and the mobile phone have taken play away!

Yes, things were better, so it seems,
In the years of yesterday.

(Daphne Grant)