Sooking Silence

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quarter worth of drops

tuppence hal’penny worth of treat

small denominations

for weighted-measure worth of sweets

lemon sherberts, strawberries,

liquorice in strings

butter dainties, caramels

a paper poke of things

tempting to the tastebuds

lips purse, tongues salivate

little lads and lassies

in the corner shop all wait

taking turns to order

eyes purchase every kind

going over flavours

in the testrooms of their mind

counting out the coppers

with due care, not one to spare

fair exchange and movies

sooking silence in armchair

contentment on a Saturday

sherbert moments, MB bars

rainy days of chewing gum

watching old film stars

stocking soles and cushions

hammer horror, if allowed

choking on gobstoppers

while Fred swings Ginger round

penny trays and hal’penny trays

sugared bits of bliss

candy-coated treasury

whose sticky lips I sometimes kiss

Mick McManus, wrestling

dad and smoking pipe

everybody sucking

afternoons of sheer delight

bottled up for keeping

labelled so not lost

treasured, measured memories

all poured at human cost

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16 thoughts on “Sooking Silence”

    1. Oh, I remember those too, Chris. A shift in focus and I’d be writing about coal miners, playing cards by candlelight and grown-ups nicking bread from parked bakery vans. Each decade held – holds – a mixture of both.

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  7. What is exciting to me, we used yo have places with jars of penny candy bur my favorite place had a glass case where it was like a delicatessen. You would ask “how much your cents could buy?”
    Fred and Ginger were part of my parents favorite black and white dancing movie scenes. ♡♡

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