The Bricky Pond

 

The Bricky Pond

An urban beauty spot

Chalkhill Blue butterflies

It’s the only place I’d ever seen them

 

Hay jumps

Risking life and limb for two seconds of mid-air excitement

Summersaults and soft landings

Ducks-and-drakes

Thirteen kisses on the glasslike surface

Sticklebacks and frogspawn

I saw a grass snake once

The water stank of dead dogs, and pond weed

But I only remembered the Chalkhill Blue butterflies

It’s the only place I ever saw them

 

It’s where I learnt to swim

Chucked in by my cruel dad

“Crocodile coming”

As he launched a railway sleeper

He made sure I got a mouthful

And kicked the dog for trying to save me

Poor Kim

Rotten Dad

The water tasted of dead dogs, and pondweed

I still remember Chalkhill Blue butterflies

It’s the only place I ever saw them

 

I spoke to an old guy recently

He was still upset about losing a school friend when he was a nipper

The lad had gone swimming in the Bricky pond

He got a mouthful

Water poisoned with dead dogs, and pondweed

He never mentioned the Chalkhill Blue butterflies