Don’t Belong

Like the Buckingham Palace garden party where I wee’d in the bushes. And cricket at Lords where I was introduced to cricketing legends. And didn’t know spin from fast, ass from elbow. I’m sat on a council house wall, wearing trousers made from Grandma’s cast offs that sawed my legs. Couldn’t play football but sang in a choir. Playing truant, first Sunday School, testing if God was everywhere. Was he under the bridge where I hid? He might have been in the park when my teacher met my mum and hoped I would be better on Monday. They put me in the top class at Grammar School. Did they know we didn’t have hot water? Did they know about the manufacture of silk purses? Advice for university applicants: Be careful of anything involving cutlery. Careers advice. ‘I would like to go to Dartmouth College, sir.’ ‘Father in the navy, boy?’ ‘No, sir.’ ‘Grandfather?’ ‘No, sir’ ‘Do you like people, boy?’ ‘Yes, sir.’ ‘Thought about shop work?’