Oops!

~~~

Purple pixie hood:
Grey knitted mittens:
Ill fitting brown coat
buttoned up to the neck
almost cutting off my air supply;
red runny nose.

I sat in the barrow
Degs holding one handle
Podge the other.

The Wigston Gaslight and Coke
6.30 on a winters
Saturday morning;
a rime frost coating a still dark world.
Steamy breath
frozen snot candles;
breakfast hours away
bladder bursting and tummy rumbling.
My misery knew no bounds,
rather that than
being left behind.

“We’ll tek our mu
she don’t whine”
Degs had said,

Gilly grinned, she loved her bed
more than her brothers.

The coke fire
would be glowing and toast made
long before she surfaced;
my toast would taste the sweeter
for my discomforts;
my hot aches would disappear as if by magic...

If only my knickers were dry!