Margery Rehman - Flashes from Childhood 1. The Clydesdales.
How we loved them. <br />In an otherwise grey world <br />These blinkered, patient creatures <br />Gave us such delight as <br />Massive, sinewy strong, they pulled the carts <br />Piled high with metal parts <br />Over the cobbled streets <br />To the docks and back. <br /> <br />Gentle giants, with gleaming coats <br />Friendly, allowing us to stroke them and call their names. <br />These huge horses trudging along <br />Proud, strong workers. <br /> <br />Once each year-the annual fair- <br />They came in procession, <br />Bedecked in leather, silver and brass. <br />Garlands and roses entwined in their hair. <br />Like the war-horses of old <br />They stood stately and proud <br />Caparaisoned in all their finery, <br />Heads high, knightly in bearing, <br />Magnificent to behold. <br /> <br />One day they were gone. <br />The shipyards closed- <br />Orders gone to Japan. <br />They had become 'economically unviable', <br />An anachronism in our brave new post-war world. <br />But we children missed them; <br />They'd been our friends. <br />And when our eyes met theirs <br />We had understood each other.<br /><br />Margery Rehman<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem..../flashes-from-childh
