AN OLD BIRMINGHAM POSTCARD: OUR VILLAGE, HANDSWORTH...

 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

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…