Uncle Fred, recently dead

came back suddenly to life

at number 32 Tavistock Crescent

and made a mockery of the present

while trams went by with a metal sigh,

 

and our hands were joined as we held our breath.

The tiny voice began to issue

from somewhere near the aspidistra

while Mrs Mulvaney in a velvet dress

appeared to be in some distress,

and the trams went by with a metal sigh

full of workers to the terminus.

 

The drapes were tight across the divide

a suffocating silence inside

apart from the voice of Uncle Fred

who died in somebody else's bed.

A double life he may have led

 his secret remaining  beyond the grave

with his wife in limbo equally lost

and the trams went by with a metal sigh

quite serenely in the pattering rain

with a yellow light in Mitcham Lane

making contact against the sky

the overhead wires thrilling with power

the transiting clouds hurrying by.