Выбрать главу

… me and then get this down me and

then I’ll be all right

spuds and mashed and with knees

try hard peas, peas, peas

shovel peas in, more then I’ll be all right

more?

more

general sold his cockerel

the meat is good, more meat, that’s

the thing, must eat to get right, get this down me and then

I’ll be all right, that’s it, ask for more meat. More meat?

He’s not going to eat his, no, I’ll have his, must eat, how he

can leave it I don’t know, here Oh! twitcher!

no… eee! my hands,

the backs of my hands! Hurts not for long, I’ve

got over worse, I’m the toughest.

They said it was just a craze,

wanting to eat, it would never catch on, la la la!

Catchy.

I always did believe

in ruining your own work, it was one of my fondest beliefs,

if you do that then you don’t have to beholden to somebody,

do you?

Scrape the plate, the mash off, mash off corners

Swinging on

ropes, nothing much on, just something round his

unmentionables, as we

used to call them, into all that mucky water and crawlies,

out in the bare colds or rocks was it,

only a picture after all.

Another one I saw had Charlie Chimpanzee

in it, when I was that high. Then we had Gilbert

Harding being rude, we enjoyed it! Diving into the

crawlies and the water all covered by scrum, those jungle

creepers! How we used to laugh!

She ought to show us films here,

though some would abuse the privilege, they never do.

It would never do

da-da, ma-ma

Brisket and taters, brisket, brisket

atrisket, my love bisquit, brown bread and waistcoat,

crumbs to his watch-piece.

My name’s Gloria, Glory

for short. It’s too far this time. May I never?

My true love went once round fingering, blue hair he

had with his long black eyes, four foot three

in his bloomers, I remember him so clearly, it was in

a pub we first met, I was with my mates at the time, he

was with his. Yellow jumper and pale skirt

This for two or more I was with him,

standing in the dark. Milk stout was all our tipple, then.

He was my first, it was raining at the time.

She’s in trouble this time, not me, House Mother’ll hit

her, not me, this time

No, she’s

not, that’s not fair, she’s only getting a tonguelashing,

not the twitcher, it’s not fair not fair!

me

me me me meeee mememememememememe! say it aloud

ME! The twitcher, lucky

she didn’t hear, lucky me!

A gallon of gin I must have

drunk last night, this won’t do, where’s the money

coming from? It doesn’t get him anywhere.

I must cut down on the food, supporters and suspenders,

it won’t do, I won’t have his drinking though

I’ll have his drink been, no twat you'll be,

What matters most is what we’ll be

The joys of life continue strong

Throughout old age, however long.

… MOST IMPORTANT THING TO DO

IS STAY ALIVE AND SEE IT THROUGH

NO MATTER IF THE FUTURE’S DIM

JUST KEEP STRAIGHT ON AND TRUST IN HIM

FOR HE KNOWS BEST AND BRINGS GOOD BEER

OH LUCKY US THAT WE ARE HERE!

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO DO

IS STAY ALIVE AND SEE IT THROUGH!

Now she ought to be

pleased with me, no twitcher, no one can sing louder

than I can, not even that fat slob Ivy, cow.

Work! The people must

work if they are to earn their daily bread! Life

is not all butter, someone has to earn the guns as

well, ha ha!

What’s she

giving them two to do? I could do it, whatever it is.

Here! Twitcher! The twitcher!

It’s not only that, there are tripes and lazy

breeders for supper, summer in a sauce made of milk

and parsley.

I think, I think!

Careful,

I’m always careful, never let them stick it up me

without a rubber on, very careful all my life,

never had no kids, never! Very careful,

very clever, that’s me.

I can do that easy,

that crinkly paper’s not very good for it though,

not very good at it. Nasty work,

only fit for the Ivys. Nothing, nothing, nothing.

Nothing! Not my box, hate this

work, nothing here, who makes me?

Don’t want this work. Don’t want this work! Or

this Ivy, cow she is, slummocky old cow.

Slummocky old shit cow! That annoyed

her, that’ll teach her to order me about, I’m

not here to be ordered about! Except

by the twitcher, that’s all that keeps me quiet,

the only thing.

I’ll just sit here, that’s what I’ll do, just sit

here, and only work if I feel like it. Start one,

roll the paper round the roller, here, this isn’t

as easy, roller roller penny a paint, painy a

pent, old cow, I’ll roller, red paper, red paint,

red roller roller roller.

And just leave it like that. Then anyone who

sees me will think I’ve just broken off for a

moment. Oh, I’m clever, you know, I

know all the dodges, I learned them, all the

dodgers, when I was working, you learn all the

dodgers to work as little as

This way I won’t have to touch

the horrible glue, no, not even to touch it.

The twitcher’s

gone up the stage with her, the twitcher has, bye

bye the twitcher, good riddance twitcher! If

I just sit here and keep quiet and do nothing

then she won’t come down here again with the

twitcher for me, the twitcher for me, If

ye’re no a garlic, the twitcher’s for me.

If possible keep on going where they

are all like Mind you, if I was her I

would not put up with any of it, any of it, myself

It pays to keep up with your payments. Sometimes

we wouldn’t. They were all away. The girls had

it away. No one played at home, then.

She’s going to team up with those two! Now they

won’t talk to me. It’s not fair. Yesterday she

did it, too. She deliberately doesn’t ask me. I’m

sure of that. I can do this as well as anyone,

round the roller, the glue. I could be part of the

team. It hurts.

Where are they all gone? I had them here, all of

them. And now they’re not here. It may

be my true love, my one true love. His hair was

golden, his eyes were blue, he stood six feet two

in his bare socks, the first one. My one true.

One two, dozens since then. He bumped into me

coming out of the four ale bar into the corridor,

there I was scrubbing near the milk stout. I was