Our Village: Handsworth…
A drunk leaves the inn, his face flushed and red,
Escaping The Golden Fleas rife in his bed;
The publican’s wife from a window is leaning,
With no apparent urge to complete the cleaning…
The inn’s sign hangs like its depicted sheep,
Scrawny cats upon rooftops tentatively creep;
Lingering on doorsteps are Brum's gossiping wives,
As tall, thin chimney stacks peer down on their lives…
A sweep peers with interest into a chimney to seek
His scrabbling lad, soot smothered on cheek;
A collapsed inebriated ne’er-do-well sleeps in the street
And inquisitive pigs roam like cops on the beat…
Attic windows are open, women’s heads are revealed,
A funeral carriage disappears, its corpse’s fate sealed;
The church tower rises but fails to inspire,
As birds perch along lengths of telegraph wire…
A barefoot girl wears a skirt, creased and loose
Which attracts the attention of a recalcitrant goose;
A child takes a ride upon a cow, plainly formidable,
Its crumpled horns twisted wildly and oddly risible…
The fowl appear not to have fouled in the street,
Where there’s no trash, no traffic, no CCTV discreet;
A white cat watches this scene of Handsworth culture
But on the nearby stripped sapling, could that be a vulture?
The ‘Hole’ of one house is to let apparently,
Yet is Birmingham’s spelling much improved currently?
A girl peruses a poster hinting on the way one should dress,
Wearing shawl, stockings and clogs which appear quite distressed…
A man in a top hat plays a woodwind tune,
Affecting a dog which howls at the moon;
Yet surely the pump on the corner really oughta
Dispense not cow’s milk but drinking water?
Folks carry pails to this milk pump, which is operated
By the tail of a cow, as clearly illustrated;
Another loose goose laps up the wasted spillage,
On this ‘Wish You Were Here’ postcard from Handsworth Village…
Pete Ray
September 2017
Looking at a postcard once created about Birmingham’s Handsworth village which appears in Mary B Harding’s book, ‘Comic and Novelty Postcards of Birmingham’, published by Maxam.
The postcard was originally published by Cynicus and used postally in 1907…
All Brummie life is here…
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