...

.....

'53: Ghost Concerto for a Spring that Was
...

.....
A branch of may:

..................a memory

of how at age five I ran

........................across Penny Lane

railway bridge,

a crayoned Union Jack

..................flapping in my hand.
...
.....
.....
.....
'53...
.....
Coronation Year!

..................And how in class I received



a mug with the young Queen's portrait.
...
.....
.....
.....
A Fairy Delta

.........................glinted high

above our damp

........................Liverpool schoolyard.



Christopher T. George



Mossley Hill: A Spring of My Childhood

Fifty springs later, I remember how
crocuses and daffodils surprised
the damp woods in Sudley, Liverpool,
as I strolled to Emma Holt's
brick and sandstone mansion,

the upstairs dusty museum,
an Emperor penguin in a glass case,
the dark shrunken head
with a thong through its nose

how the bellicose guard
in Corporation navy blue uniform
always ordered me
to move to the next exhibit.

Christopher T. George