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We crept downstairs in the dead of night
and crouched in the fridge’s sallow light
to savour hushed and secret sips.
We licked deceit off greedy lips
and put the tin back where it went.
Our yawning infant thirst unspent
we whispered back upstairs to bed.
Now, all childish want is shed
and no forbidden thing as sweet
will spur me like that metal teat.
Travis Brow
Fri 23rd Jan 2015 06:10
Thanks M.C. Who wrote those lines? I did a quick search but nothing came up.
Agree with Harry - excellent use of rhyme and
imagination. I am minded to add the following
in praise of both - with a nod to a certain
English poet of yesteryear!
"I remember...I remember...
The fridge I used to raid
That harboured night-time treats galore
Of which my dreams were made..."!!!
........................................:-))
Travis Brow
Fri 16th Jan 2015 12:07
Cynthia, i admit i thought they were one and the same. I found a distinction here:
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/tools-and-techniques/condensed-milk-vs-evaporated-milk.htm
It's amazing what one thinks one knows until asked to explain.
Gentlemen, I wonder if we are at cross purposes with condensed milk and evaporated milk. I recall condensed milk as a thick syrup, so viscous you could stand up a sturdy metal spoon in it, while evaporated milk poured freely, if thickly, from a hole in the can.
The milk in my 'tea' was, upon reflection, evaporated milk, likely a ratio of half and half warmed milk to well-steeped powerful leaves. And, actually, I had to refuse it. Vomitting didn't seem to be an option. But I paid for it - everlastingly.
Harry, not being English enough was worse than my skin colour. And I do recall friends who spread condensed milk on bread - kind of a Marmite thing even back then.
Travis Brow
Thu 15th Jan 2015 15:42
Cynthia, the quickest way to ruin a cup of tea would be to use condensed milk. I sympathise, although i imagine declining it was not an option.
Harry, you are evidently a connoisseur.
Thank you both for reading the poem.
Cynthia,
shame on you for slandering condensed milk. The
absolute acme of gustatory joy in my young boyhood was
a condensed milk ``butty`` (with a sprinkle of sugar)
...Perfection! pure Perfection!...Girl, youve never lived :)
By the way Travis...nice rhyming.
And, of course, 'that metal teat' would be the triangular punch hole - took me a moment to clue in. The first cup of tea ever offered to me by my new mother-in-law came directly from an enormous pot, hair-growing strong, already heavily sugared and swimming in condensed milk. I never tasted anything so gross in my life. It was one of my tensest moments ever (and I'm not kidding!)
Good poem.
Travis Brow
Thu 15th Jan 2015 07:36
Than you Jack, thank you Mike. My childhood was materially okay but emotionally fraught. That said, sneaking out of bed to drink condensed milk affirms the fact that i had a bed, and a fridge to raid which is more than some have so i'm not complaining. Thanks again.
I can relate to this. Adventure has now been taken out of life. A click of a button reveals all. Benefit accrues from self creation!
He he,
I like this Travis. I can really identify with it. When I and my fellow siblings were young we hungered a bit. My ma n pa used to go out on the lash and put us all to bed without a baby sitter. Something that would be unheard of today. While they were out, myself and my bro would creep downstairs and make margarine and sugar butties before returning to our bedroom. Sometimes we would pass our two step sisters on the stairs, also sneaking down to have at the cornflakes or sugar or perhaps dripping butties. Personal favourite for me was the cornflake butties with dripping lol.
We may be a different generation that suffered hardship back then in the 70's and 80's, but being honest I wouldn't want my own children to grow the way we did. It was a very dehumanizing experience in many ways.
Great poem Travis.
Best wishes
Mike
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M.C. Newberry
Fri 23rd Jan 2015 16:55
TB - your own inspiration had me paraphrasing
the opening of a poem by Thomas Hood =
"I remember...I remember
The house where I was born...!"
Cheeky, I know, but it was meant well.