if you really want to try,

how imagination prospered

and fantasy would fly

in days of early childhood

when some fertile make belief

saw kids make use of sunlight

before night became a thief.

A cubby house of cardboard

or a billy cart downhill

were projects needing friendship

where memories linger still.

Remember how the Pepper trees

invited us to climb

and how we counted pennies

spent each year at bonfire time.

The Tom Thumbs and the Bungers

and the rockets set in sand

called all the neighbours in for fun

on someone's vacant land.

The comic books like Ginger Meggs

were a colourful display

and if you ever find one

it is worth a mint today.

Camps and picnics at weekends,

sausage charred on forky stick,

catch a crayfish on a line,

watch the claws and be real quick.

The gravel yards and sand pit farms

with fences, dams and roads

found tricycles and tractors

moving engineers' large loads.

Skipping ropes and hopscotch squares

guaranteed to stir the dust.

When Mum called out to “Wash those hands”,

the Solvol was a must.

Snakes and Ladders, Ludo, Draughts

were some common board games played

but techno kids today will say

“How could you be so staid?”

with their computers and their I phones

and gadgets electronic,

their world is ever changing

at speeds considered sonic.

Their day is full of buttons,

they are programmed by the hour,

lost to social interaction,

seduced by Facebook's power.

by Kevin Pye.

Submissions welcome for The Ink Spot. Please send to PO Box 356 Mudgee or email j.baggett@bigpond.com