Orchard Lane

 

“Don’t get caught, he’ll fuckin’ kill yer!”

Emerald green and ruby red

Jewels just out of your reach

Treasures in the strawberry bed

 

“He’s got a dog with vicious fangs!”

Black as coal we watch him prowl

He snarls and gnashes foaming jaws

And scares us with his hellhound growl.

 

“Bide yer time and take yer chances!”

Remaining hidden behind the wall

Till Old Man Harris and his dog

Are safely out of beck and call

 

“Shift yer arse and get a move on!”

We scramble over sun-baked bricks

And drop down to the shaded orchard

This is how we got our kicks

 

“Grab ‘an ‘andful, hurry up’

We rush to gather windfall fruit

Strawberries, blackberries and apples

The currency of childhood loot

 

“He’s bleedin’ coming do a runner!”

Pelting for the nearby gate

With precious cargo being lost

In our haste to escape our fate

 

“Fuckin’ hell, I’m fuckin’ knackered’
Safe, we divvy up the spoils

A moments pleasure on the lips

And then each one of us recoils

 

“Fuckin’ hell these apples r’sour!”

Grubs and maggots in the berries

Pears that taste of carbolic soap

Mould on the inviting cherries

 

“It weren’t really worth the effort!”

So we never went back there again

To scrump for apples, steal the fruit,

Risk life and death on orchard lane