Let's Pretend Poem by Sheena Blackhall

I am re-inventing your childhood
Let's pretend your bedroom
Was specially painted blue
With mobiles, night-light, music
Fit for a prince.

Let's pretend
You only cried if you fell
And never from fear or pain, distress or grief.
That everyday adventures were always nice

Let's pretend you never held a gun
Were blooded before you were ten
With your first kill
That you never cowered from the belt
Or ran away, stayed up till the wee tired hours
Child-gambler, playing daddy for pennies
Eight turned twenty one

Let's pretend that mummy
Wasn't a sponge of tears
That leaked out messy and useless,
Not fit to raise a flea

I am reinventing your childhood.
Let's pretend that mummy
Didn't put you in care
Believing the lie that the Nanny State knows best

Intelligent, musical, quick,
A natural leader and athlete, the teachers wrote
But all those early apples
Withered on the bough
Counted for nought

I am reinventing your childhood
Indulge me kind ghost
And all those other ghosts
Who walk that bitter track
On torn, bleeding feet

The Past is gone away, beyond pretending
Ah, could I take it back!