Ruby Mere: a journey back to childhood #journeys

swingboats

Our Community Correspondent Derek Read goes back to visit a favourite childhood spot with his brother

Ruby Mere

Not many ducks on Ruby Mere,
come moorhens; tranquil,
as we pool our memories
of the bustling place of our childhood

Nine years difference- but this place was common
the rowing boats,
the swing-boats,
hulking monstrosities, that screamed
the kids up to the heights
as the attendant lazily watched

The slot machines with variations
on “what the butler saw” by the tearoom
The picnic ground and tiddler stream
fishing with nets
Cars, bikes and noise
and “innocent” pastimes in the woods

All is quiet now
the keep-out signs blare out
“Private Property” where the swing-boats were
It seems sad to us- caught in the past
Maybe we cannot see the beauty
feel the silence
in the noise of our melancholy

Derek Read

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