A Poem a Day (124): Retro kid

I wrote this for 2minutesgo, JD Mader’s writing blog. Write, read, post anything there over the weekend. You've got all weekend :) This is a poem about childhood and those hot eternal summers we used to have.

Retro kid

I stand here singing my heart out

To the back of a nylon hairbrush

As my brother tries to capture me

On my mother’s flat tape recorder:

Fingers up, down, stop, pause, up, play.

Dancing in front of the long mirror,

Humming along to ‘Bend me, shape

Me’, it’s my finest moment surely,

While the old 45 runs rings around us,

Needle on the record bouncing in tune.

We try to capture every part of the song

As the midday sun calls out to us

To head out on our bikes and play.

But we need to finish our recording –

Fame beckons – out there, somewhere!

It’s a world of orangey brown in the 70s,

From my mother’s dress to the plastic beakers

With white dots perched on kitchen shelves

To the shag-pile carpet our cat is splayed on,

And summer is never-ending, lasting a year or two.

Our friendly neighbours shake out a green hose

Like a snake where our two gardens greet.

We spin in circles, laughing, leaping the spray,

Our collie dog barking and stamping his paws

As the water cascades in a silvery sundance.

Copyright Vickie Johnstone, April 17, 2020