Aug 2017
SHE PLAYS WHAT SHE PLAYS
Her brother's
vinegar-soaked-oven-baked
conker
conquering all other
conkers.
The moment held on a a string
before swinging to collision
like a cartoon
pOW!wOW!baMMM!
She cuts her chestnut
carefully in two.
The popped-out-conker
...her baby
in its greeny spiky
pram.
She talks to it.
Kisses it.
"Shhhh...baby a sleeep!"
Her brother's marble
a blue and cold world
propelled by a swift deft flick
of a bitten-to-the- quick thumb
the little blue world inches
relentlessly towards
scattering all be-
-fore it:
when worlds
collide.
A solar system
destroyed.
He now
the conquerer of conquerers.
She
places her marble
gently in her other
spiky green pram
like she's rearing
an alien.
She's got two babies.
One a conker...the other a marble.
She takes good care
of both of them.
Worries about
their well being.
Loving them for what
...they are.
She watches the world
through the eye of the marble
a tiny blue universe
held in her palm.
Her brother's
vinegar-soaked-oven-baked
conker
conquering all other
conkers.
The moment held on a a string
before swinging to collision
like a cartoon
pOW!wOW!baMMM!
She cuts her chestnut
carefully in two.
The popped-out-conker
...her baby
in its greeny spiky
pram.
She talks to it.
Kisses it.
"Shhhh...baby a sleeep!"
Her brother's marble
a blue and cold world
propelled by a swift deft flick
of a bitten-to-the- quick thumb
the little blue world inches
relentlessly towards
scattering all be-
-fore it:
when worlds
collide.
A solar system
destroyed.
He now
the conquerer of conquerers.
She
places her marble
gently in her other
spiky green pram
like she's rearing
an alien.
She's got two babies.
One a conker...the other a marble.
She takes good care
of both of them.
Worries about
their well being.
Loving them for what
...they are.
She watches the world
through the eye of the marble
a tiny blue universe
held in her palm.
***
Watching my little girl play with her conkers and marbles in a way different to her cousin( she always called him her `'brother" 'cos she always wanted one so she just made him one with words.
Conkers of course would be "buckeyes" in America. As kids we were bonkers about conkers even if all we did was collect them and have as stash of them. Put a fresh conker behind furniture or near windows to keep the spider population low!
Around Worcestershire it was known as ‘oblionker’ (****. obly-onker) and play was accompanied by such rhymes as ‘Obli, obli, onker, my first conker (conquer)’. The word oblionker apparently being a meaningless invention to rhyme with the word conquer, which has by degrees become applied to the nut itself.
Watching my little girl play with her conkers and marbles in a way different to her cousin( she always called him her `'brother" 'cos she always wanted one so she just made him one with words.
Conkers of course would be "buckeyes" in America. As kids we were bonkers about conkers even if all we did was collect them and have as stash of them. Put a fresh conker behind furniture or near windows to keep the spider population low!
Around Worcestershire it was known as ‘oblionker’ (****. obly-onker) and play was accompanied by such rhymes as ‘Obli, obli, onker, my first conker (conquer)’. The word oblionker apparently being a meaningless invention to rhyme with the word conquer, which has by degrees become applied to the nut itself.
