The Sound of Faint Applause

The sound of one hand clapping -- ah, yes,
an forgivable cliché -- there's no doubt
I should be dragged into the Writer's Plaza
and horsewhipped for such a transgression!

Still, I hear the sound of faint applause,
for my mother and father, so unprepared
for parenthood; but neither was I prepared
to be a child. Hands tied behind our backs

in post World War II Liverpool,
rationing still in place, the city blitzed
by Hitler's Luftwaffe, gaptoothed streets,
minds decimated or distorted forever.

No licenses given out to qualify anyone
to become a parent, no classes on how to raise
a family, how to be a wife, husband, child.
No wonder we're all in such a mess today,

psyches cramped by rules, intentions
misunderstood since unexpressed,
passports unstamped to enter
a cold and uncaring world.

Christopher T. George



Liverpool Blitz Memorial by Tom Murphy, St. Nicholas's Churchyard, Liverpool



Recent book on the 1941 Blitz in Liverpool based on the secret diary of a local reporter.