I hanker a little for the olden days
When a simpler life was sown
When lovely words that you’d read from friends
Were on paper and not on the phone.
When having a meal was an easier task
Antibiotics weren’t in a cow’s food
Wonder which daft bugger thought of that
If to ask isn’t too blinkin’ rude.
When going out for a drink at night
Was a perfectly fine thing to do
We’d walk home along the railway line
Though if we’d drunk far too much, we flew.
We’d had back then so many trains
Till Marples got Beeching to act
Who closed so many railways tracks
With bluster and no bloody tact.
Mm! The hankering moods a ‘changing
It wasn’t all comfort and joy
Though I did get to watch the Mallard
When I was just a wee boy.

And now we live in this modern age
Where our messages zoom round so fast
And we’re cross if they take any longer
Amidst trees now you’ll see the odd mast.
I made computers myself for awhile
So I’m really as guilty as most
For encouraging digital signatures
Instead of those in the post.
But the grass is still green, the sky is still blue
And it gets dark at night as it did
And when we all fear a little for the future
Feelings sometimes escape through the lid.

©Joe Wilson – Back then…2016

Might be a little rusty, sorry.