(the knocker-upper)
~
slumber-held, locked in sleep,
woke one morn, late you see;
time rolled back 100 years,
this the era of my dream.
a world gone dark, power gone out,
no microwaves and no AC!
no hydro dams, no Tesla car,
no ’lectric drill... and no TV!
of alarm clocks? who’d ever heard!
the super star of world gone dark?
well, in my dream, tha’d be me!
for a world gone dark still must needs,
to wake at break of day!
needs knocker-uppers ev’rywhere,
the chief of which is me!
for i'm the knocker upper man
you think i knock for free? no,
a knocker upper for my supper
i’ll blow a pea for fee,
i rap the glass to roust the sleeper
my craft is breaking dreams, you see...
for who’ll wake the knocker upper?
in my dream the knocker upper chief,
the superstar of world gone dark?
yes, in my dream, tha’d be me!
~
post script.
in my morning reading, i stumbled on a once-upon-a-time... an age when mankind churned out all manner of product by hand. this then my muse, a lighthearted glimpse of an era before the alarm clock. in this i imagine the world before the light bulb, and as in ev’ryone’s own dreams, i play the hero. :). of course, then i awaken to find myself at my true station in life, a server of servers! a most fitting title for whom i am meant to be!! 😋
“But who woke the knocker uppers?” A tongue-twister from the time tackled this conundrum:
We had a knocker-up, and our knocker-up had a knocker-up
And our knocker-up’s knocker-up didn’t knock our knocker up,
So our knocker-up didn’t knock us up ‘Cos he’s not up.
articles that tell the story:
www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-england-35840393
lancashireminingmuseum.org/2017/09/07/who-knocked-up-the-knocker-upper/
yes, yes, i know, i have been absent of late. the world has changed though i have not, simply gotten busier than i ever expected to be at my age, my absence from these walls not one of choices made by me so much as choices made by life. hope this makes you smile as much as i did in its writing!!!
peace my friends
SE