Poverty not austerity
Poverty not austerity
You were born in the Great War
You spoke of your first memory
Watching the funeral procession
Of an unknown Australian soldier
You spoke of your childhood
And the innocence of those days
Of hardship during the depression
Of disease and short lived babyhood
You reached school leaving age
And at fourteen left the valley
For service in a bankers house
It’s not hard to feel the outrage
A child alone in a Chelsea house
A child alone far from home
Earning money for the family
hard pressed times and no choice
And the irony of being bullied
By an old Welsh house keeper
Because you didn’t speak
the language. A small child.
That’s what you were
A child in hard times
Doing your best for your
Brothers and sisters.
RAC
A fence between us
