1191

            The test

The Albert Hall is full of families

For a National Youth Choir Prom,

The noise and flashing cameras

Exceeded only by the Last Night.

A sixth month boy grizzles

In the row before me

Bouncing on his mother's lap

While she holds up the camcorder.

Now I realise there are two babies

Who take it in turns to be taken out

While the music rolls on,

Carefully choosing to cry their loudest

Just as the music is most hushed.

Will the music survive?

I follow the text as Flame begins

But am aware

Most of the parents have no programmes

Preferring to chat through the adult sections

Focussing only when their child sings.

Back home I listen on the radio.

This time the soprano is close to my ear

And the babies just a distant squeal.

Brian Hick August 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 3.7.24

 1190

To the Master of Vectis

I'll set Medusa where you lay to dine

To ward off any evil that may chance,

With gifts from Ceres, Attis and the winds

Above a band of sea folk to entrance.

I will set Orpheus to guard your door,

Surrounded by the animals you love,

The monkey that you found in Appledoor,

Your rabbit and Britannia's turtle dove.

I'll give you gladiators in a fight

Gullus in his costume for the play

And Bacchus to carouse into the night

Thanksgiving for the wine and for the hay.

All this with scrolls like vines to link the stories

With frescoes to refelct their marbled glories.

My great-grandfather set up these mosiacs

And we've the tablets that he left behind

With instructions...

Brian Hick August 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 2.7.24

 1190

To the Master Builder

We'd like the floors to show what we believe,

Not arrogantly, but so that our friends

Will know as they are welcomed and received

That kindness and acceptance to the end

Are at the heart of all that keeps us true,

Whether in the fields of ripening corn,

The cattle on the hills, or ale we brew

As our forefathers have done since that dawn

When they first settled Vectis and these hills

Were gradually shaped by Ceres' hand

Into the pastures and the wooded rills

Which succour all who venerate this land.

            Is this too much to ask or can you find

            Designs which will entrance a working mind?

Brian Hick August 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 1.7.24

 1189

5th August

My can of Stella

On the train wishes me a 

Merry Christmas.

Brian Hick August 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 28.6.24

Dear reader, I will be away until Friday and so will not be posting Brian's next poems until then. Sally 

 1188 Isle of Wight - various oddments (4)

How good to know that

After all these years horse-shoes

Still hold their value.

Brian Hick July 2012

As a child, Brian had a miniature horse-shoe

made by a farrier on the Isle of Wight as a souvenir.

In our teens, Brian gave the said horse-shoe to me

as remembrance while he was away.

©Sally Hick 24.7.24

 1188 Isle of Wight - various oddments (3)

               Holiday lunchtime;

                    Blue slush

                      Kitcats

                    And chips.

Brian Hick July 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 21.7.24

(2012 holiday with our granddaughter)