Just For You Poetry

Now I was born in Portsmouth
Pompey to us kids
our playground was the bombsites
filled with rubble and with bricks,
just off Queen Street we was living
not far from the docks
opposite the barracks
where Royal Marine bands marched the blocks.

We had no toys cos money was short
in those days just after the war
we made wooden swords and catapults
a kid couldn´t ask for more,
I´d have one sock up and one sock down
shirt hanging out at the back
holes in me jumper shoes well scuffed
when I got home I´d be in for a whack.

Me nose was always running
and me sleeves was filled with snot,
me knees was bleeding, caked in mud
but playing out we liked a lot,
we fought battles on the bombsites
we played cowboys all day long
we´d smash bottles with our catapults
and walk round singing dirty songs.

Now I was born in Portsmouth
in nineteen forty eight
when valves went in the radios
and it was spuds that filled our plates,
we never had the bleeding internet
I-pads or mobile phones
we didn´t really need them then
cos we all came from humble homes.