Shopping In The Sixties With Mum : Mother Poetry

I liked to go shopping with my Mother down town  .

We caught the 89 bus there .

 So we would have to stand and wait at the stop,

 where she would make ready our  bus fare .

 People in the queue all stood silently .

My cousin was a bus driver

and if we were lucky we might get a free trip .

 We knew how long we had to wait

by the number of people that the queue equipped .

The bus came and we got on .

The bus conductor sold tickets and mine was half price .

The weather was usually wet

and in winter the windows were covered with ice .

 Upstairs the air was thick with smoke .

Down stairs it was easier to breath and to see .

 I counted twelve stops before we got off .

Then we were in town my Mother and me .

There were all sorts of shops that sold leather gear ,
rings for your ear, coffee in a cup .

Knives that carve and scarfs for your head or around your neck ,

fluffy slippers  and make up .

Cornmarket stalls with shopping malls ,
beggers on corners , Smithfields second hand bargains .

Lunchtime university crowds in cafes and in Belfast's Botanic gardens .

They're a sight to see in their clogs and smocks ,

in their beards and boots , with their long hair too .

The cities full of hippies and the sixties is a time

that we are going through .

  .

The Albert clock and Royal Avenue shops with yards of carpet undercover .

Radios and records , gas heaters , lighters and writing pens .

Me and my Mother .

Walking together avoiding crazy collisions for provisions we might need .

Things we wish we had .
Sofas or big beds , pillows for your head .
Comic books to read .

Sure it's a quare place to be my Mother and me .

Fine Irish linens , swinging ropes , .

Ships , trains , buses and barbers, bakers, butchers,
tobacco makers and pre-packed soaps .

Anybody with a good eye can see it's top quality .
All is well you'll see .

All the streets characters for us to see .

We walk side by side my mother and me .

C and A comforts .

Potatoes in jackets some donkey jackets

Caps for the head .

Be happy because in this business of life

nothing changes until we are dead .

By Paul McCann