I looked out of the window to where the cuckoo clock was and thought of something I used to read to my children when they were little and this rhyme always made me feel sad and I had to phone my daughter to see what it was because I couldn't remember it but I knew that she would. Anyway, the poem is here:
A teddy bear sits on a mattress
One glass eye and threadbare paw
Looking at a cuckoo clock
Which shows it's ten to four
Four o'clock is teddy's teatime
Lots of friends and fancy cake
Although it's only pretend eating
Oh how long ten minutes take
Shadows grow on distant hillsides
Orange sun on glassy sea
All in his amber eye reflected
And still ten minutes left 'til tea
The mattress, striped, is old and broken
Rusty springs through stuffing show
The cuckoo clock is also broken
But how's a teddy supposed to know?
Unaware he's been discarded
That this is not the nursery cot
The hills and sea just glass, old papers
On a disused rubbish plot
A telephone that no one answers
Empty tins that once held tea
The clock that still says nearly teatime
Where can all the children be?
For ages now he's lain unwanted
Saluting with his threadbare paw
He'll never know he's been abandoned
'Til the clock reads after four
Don't tell him that the clock is broken
For as long as teddy doesn't know
It'll always soon be teatime
As it was so long ago
I cried again as I read this - what a silly old softie I am!
Well Rosie I can feel the sadness in this little poem and it speaks to us of times past which will not return but also another way of looking at it is that there can always be hope. You've made a simple object like a cuckoo clock take on a very philosophical bent.
@quietpurplehaze Yes the pic is actually not very good because it is situated just below the eaves of the garage so the lighting is awful. I wanted to post it just so that I could put the poem on!
@rosiekind I think the pic of the cuckoo clock is fine. I am reminded a little bit of finding suitable images so that I could post those last 3 weeks of my dad's PoW diaries!
@gerry Thanks Gerry @quietpurplehaze Your Dad's PoW diaries were so interesting Hazel @busylady The poem is from Captain Beaky and I had to google to find the words for this. I knew that my daughter would remember because we have always been so close and she loved this poem too although it made her sad
