Tuesday 27 October 2015

AN AWKWARD CUSTOMER OCTOBER 27TH

 

  I taught for three years in a huge flat roofed secondary school in Hampshire.  This was in the days when I could walk.  I have Cerebral Palsy, so my walk was very far short of "gainly" or confident.  Let's face it, it was odd. 

             One afternoon, this happened:
 

                                                                
SAMUEL O’FLYNN

(True Story)

 

Samuel O’Flynn was a pain in the butt,
                                    When he came into class he would swagger and strut.
                                      He had laughing eyes and a right wicked grin,
                                         He was small for his age, was Samuel O’Flynn.

 Now, I am disabled, yet I could still walk,
                                                It looked pretty odd, and it made people talk.
                                                When he walked into class, I was staggered to see
                                               That Samuel was trying to walk just like me.

       I said, “Samuel, come here, look, you've got it all wrong,
The limp is too weak and it’s got to be strong.”
                                              The classroom fell silent, I dropped to the floor.
                                             “Now you push that knee in, and you twist that foot more.”

A bit of a pause, and then Samuel said, ”ow!”
                                            “That’s more like it,” I said, “go on, walk for me now”,
                                               He took a few steps, his legs twisted, and then
                                                 He suddenly stopped, ….. never did it again.

 

 

4 comments:

ADRIAN said...

This made me smile and chuckle. Takes some doing in the wee small hours.

Rosamund Browne said...

Thanks Adrian. What are you doing up in the wee small hours? Actually the poem is all over the place. It started off straight. It was ok when I first posted it but then, as I've said before I can't do anything straight.

rhymeswithplague said...

This made me simultaneously giggle and weep. I'm a bit of a poet too, and you can find some of my efforts scattered around in my two blogs. Takes some hunting, though. Some of mine rhyme and some don't.

ADRIAN said...

I have trouble sleeping.