When the Dogs Bite: 21st August 2024

sunshine and wind

in the morning bathroom

a cabbage white chrysalis

I was seven or eight or nine or ten,

but not eleven because they changed the rules

on the cut off date for school

and Kevin was kept back a year

for being three days too young,

and we stopped being friends

but on Saturdays we would get pocket money

and take the shilling to the local shop

a mile away or slightly more

if you walked along the canal path.

Sixpence put in our savings bank

and sixpence for sweets and treats;

a comic, a chocolate bar

some eight-for-a-penny chews;

a bottle of Tizer and a packet of crisps;

a tin of biscuits and a bouncy ball.

Kids today couldn't do that at all:

too many security cameras now.

When the Dogs Bite