GARDEN OF LOVE (YOUR MOTHER'S SYCAMORE TREE)
(An homage to that master comic lyricist, Benny Hill, and a revamp of one of his classics)
The crocus and the hostas raise your mother’s memory
I recall the vile old crow cos she looked like a horse to me
The cowslips bring back memories where they’re planted in the grass
The daft bat fell there; I said “That fat cow’s slipped on her arse”
We’d hide behind the cedar when I’d see’d her look for me
Then we carved a heart upon the bark of your mother’s sycamore tree.
The image of the broad beans and the peas comes back to me
She’d got lost in the long grass where she’d been to take a pee
When at last we found her what a roasting I had got
She said we’d not looked hard enough; I said “She’d lost the plot”.
But the scent of mint says our love was meant to be
So we carved a heart upon the bark of your mother’s sycamore tree.
She furiously threw at me my Pentland Javelin taters
I’d never have no peace from her, for ever she would hate us
We struggled in the onion patch and in my prize shallots
Until at last she was subdued and I said “That’s your lot!”
You swore your love was ever true me
So we carved a heart upon the bark of your mother’s sycamore tree.
We sit beneath the pear tree now, where I admire your bush
Enjoying peas and quiet now there’s just the pair of us
The sycamore I planted and the golden conifer
She’s buried underneath it; I got sick of more of her
You swore your love was ever true me
So we carved a heart upon the bark of your mother’s sycamore tree.
John Coopey
Thu 24th Nov 2016 09:16
Thanks, Colin. I should do a Compendium of Verse about Pentland Javelins. As you rightly say, it's what poetry's been missing.