Remember Then? Poem by Fay Slimm

Do you remember that lazy midsummer
In faraway Europe of long time ago?

I guess like me, you can still see
The girls in their dirndl skirts, such
Pig-tailing heart-stoppers, really
Hopping to serve us, with whirling
Smiles, and coffee-cup twirling.
Yes, you know you were there!

I know you'll recall all of us felt they
Broke many a heart then, as swaying
Flicky honey-bright, blonde shiny hair
Frilly-wenched blouses throbbingly full
Aroused all our heartbeats with yearning.
Those low gingham-clad tables fairly
Arranged in disorderly style, 'specially
So everyone there had their share.
Remember? You were there!

Were you there for the festivals?
Big men in tiny short shorts, sportingly
Cavorting chamoisery waistcoats, and
Lederhosing around every big Square.
Huge-bellied scoffing of full-fatty sausages
Swilled down with foaming great frothy
Glasses of beer - were you there?

Did you go walking among frescoed houses
With fresh-painted shutters at each side
Of the still flowering boxes on windows?
Attracting the brushes of poster-paint
Artists who muttered so inaudibly low
As canvas they splattered with
Such serious care? Were you there?


Above was the heart-stopping scenery. as
Meadows of picture-card greenery
Swayed, high in the cloudless blue skies.
Sliced through by twisty dark roads, once
Cut so painfully hard, by large-knuckled
Vassals, working by moonlight as well
As by day for nothing but honour, and
For such little pay, living in squalor still
Under their Fatherland's irony hold.
We didn't dare stay! You were there!

Greeny-blue lakes led to fairy-tale Castles.
High on the list for each equipped visitor
Curiously intent on cycling long miles.
Given to culture, then striding out hiking
To pine-girdled heights where, when there
They noisily inhaled pure air, then quicker marching
Would exhilerate passion for yet more,
So, on to other such proudly described
Fashionable retreats they'd obediently go.
I know that day you were there.

You surely remember the crunchy-white duvet
We hid and were smothered in as we both
Discovered yet another strange world?
That hot summer's holiday spent together
Turned into something like no other.
We soon lost our youth as the doom-clouds
Revealed truth of an impending war that
Some of us never were to forget, and
Millions would remember no more.

In memory of dear Uncle George
Killed in action, April 23rd.1917