Time machine

It's not just Proust who can have a vivid "Proustian moment". The memory of reading on the floor while my mum did the ironing has stayed with me for 60 years! 


These wintry afternoons, shut in against the wet,
Darkness held at bay by soft electric light,
Take me back to the iron's hiss and pop, its bang and swish
As it smoothes my father's shirts, our school uniforms;
Back to the forest of chair legs rising up around me,
To the smell of the scratchy wool, slightly dusty, carpet, 
The comfortable scorch of the open fire against my cheeks,
As I lay, chin in hands, propped up on elbows,
Lost in pages held between red and yellow hard covers,
Living a life of adventure with Robin of Sherwood,
Or swashbuckling with the Knights of the Round Table.


© Copyright 2024. Chris Auger. All Rights Reserved

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