icecream

When I was a child
I longed for a bicycle
when I was a child I was happy
because I had a wonderful mother
her face was very beautiful
when I was a child
wartime
came to sing me to sleep
my father
singing me to sleep in
his german uniform, singing
the Kaiser is a liebe man
believing not a bit
when I was a child it was wartime
and my earliest childhood
memory was listening
to my father
and I want to sing again
when I was a child
my mum thought
it would be dangerous for me
to ride a bicycle
so my dad brought me a pony instead
when I was a child
I used to save sixpences
my father was a gambler
always short of money
always immaculate
as they had no furniture he hung his suits
on the wall
when I was a child it was wartime
my little brother was born
and I had never tasted icecream
(mother had a wicked sense of humour, said:
blow on it, it is very hot)
when I was a child
I knew I was growing older because
I had to start wearing long trousers
longing for the day when my feet
would hit the floor of the tram.

Louis Marx, Margot Blake, Gloria Ordman
October 2007