'CAN I HAVE ANOTHER ONE?' (My poem about Leigh Lambert's evocative painting...)

 ‘Can I Have Another One?’

I could never ask for an ice-cream.

Would not dare,

Unless my mum made a tentative suggestion

When a van’s jaunty, scratchy tune

Was heard in a nearby street.

Then I was certainly interested

And would race from the back gate

To trace the sound’s progress,

All the while anticipating a treat

From which no child of the 1950s was immune.

But I could never ask my dad, or dream.

Would not dare…

And thus my lonely greyscale childhood

And smoking chimneys and metal bins for ashes

And go-carts and the fear of adulthood

Repeatedly return to my mind in nostalgic flashes…

Pete Ray

Looking at Leigh Lambert’s painting ‘Can I Have Another One’ and remembering what it was like for me.

I was not allowed to ask.

Mum might say she would like an ice-cream, dad might then agree and I would quickly rush into action to make sure we didn’t miss the van…

(Shard End, Birmingham…)