Monopoly

In winter we played that game a lot,
after tea on Sundays; gathered
round the fire – roasting chestnuts.
Remember? Those weeks in summer
at Skegness – the ones we saved all year for;
the caravan that leaked...How each August
we’d say we’d go somewhere else,
next time; abroad, maybe, but
we never could afford it.

Combing the rocks, and the mud-flats,
searching for razor-fish, and crabs;
that squidgy black seaweed – went pop,
when you squeezed it. Forking out
for donkey rides they just had to have...
those big-dippers and switchbacks –
turned your face green, but they had
the time of their lives.

And we had it all then, too...you and I.
The world, our proverbial oyster, and yet,
we were so busy, trying to make ends meet
we didn’t notice. So – you never bought
Pall Mall, nor me, Hyde Park, and yet
it was who we were, made what we had
so priceless; a mum, a dad, two kids
and a dog, and three fishes...
in a pond.