Benny Liked Music 1959 Poem by Terry Collett

Benny liked music;
even as a kid
he liked music.

They had a wind-up
gramophone and six
78rpm records,
one of which was
Green Door
by Frankie Vaughan,
his mother's favourite.

He used to wonder
what was behind
the green door,
and what his old man
thought of this Frankie guy.

Benny went to the cinema
with his old man
to see jazz films
like High Society
or The Glenn Miller Story
or The Five Pennies.

He made a paper
and comb instrument
to make fuzzy
trumpet sounds,
and pretended to be
Louis Armstrong
scat singing.

Benny liked music so much
he thought a black guy
on the old tram
(as a kid in London)
was Louis,
smiling at him,
without his trumpet.

Some things
he can recall
and never forget.