Winter Weather 1957 Poem by Terry Collett

I see Enid looking over
the balcony outside
my front door of the flats.

What you doing here?
I say.

Just watching
my dad
go off to work,
she says,
he was in
a good mood
this morning
didn't row or hit
either of us
even joked with me.

I look over the balcony
but her old man has gone.

He's playing
cat and mouse
with you,
I say.

Cat and mouse?
She says.

Yes being nice
one minute being
horrible the next,
I explain.

He was all right
last night too,
even let me stay up
to watch TV.

So what's cheered
him up then?
I say.

Don't know,
she says,
as long as
he is nice
I don't care.

I watch
as the coal man
loads a big sack of coal
onto his back
and walks along
to the far end flat
where a door is open.

Are you ready
for school?
I ask.

Just got to get
my bag and coat,
she says,
and walks off
up the stairs
to her flat above.

The coal man
walks back
with an empty sack
and puts it on
the back of his lorry,
then heaves
another sack
on his back
and walks back
to the flat again.

Enid comes down
the stairs again:
ready now,
she says.

So we walk down
the concrete stairs together:
both dressed up
against the winter weather.