Les Pennington had a cracking cricket bat

and it doubled as a bazooka which was good

it wasn’t one of those cheap efforts from Woolies

it was made from good mature willow wood

 

he’d got it from Kay’s which was quite ironic

as they sold mainly ex-army and military bits

i never dared ask where he got the money from

but he’d bought it second-hand for 10 and 6

 

each morning on our way to Scot Lane School

we routinely did a kind of zig-zag run

because we had to dodge those enemy bullets

which was difficult but strangely good fun

 

occasionally we were forced to take cover

and Les was in charge of our ammunition

i’d take the big bazooka from Les

and i’d take out a German position

 

one day at school Les was spin bowling

and Barry had the bat (the usual case)

i was positioned at silly-mid-on

Barry swung and hit me smack in the face

 

i ran to the changing rooms - glanced in the mirror

blood! looked like i’d been eating berries

and i guessed that was my karma

for killing all of those Jerries