The Wall
Poem by Kathleen Turner
There was a wall at the top of our yard, which ran the length of our street,
if it had eyes and ears and could tell the tale, there’d be secrets (so to speak).
We’d throw rubber balls up against it, to see how high it could go,
But the balls would get stuck in between the stones, they were there for years, you know.
The wall separated two roads, ours and Thorndon Road,
I don’t know how many stones we’re used to build it, but it must have been a load!
We sometimes walked along the top, which took some nerve to do,
we could see right into our kitchen (me mama could see us too!)
We sometimes tried to climb it, but didn’t get too high,
It was like climbing a mountain, the wall that reached the sky.
That wall was our view for many years, we knew every gap, every stone.
We grew up with it and when we left, the wall must have felt alone.
We went back many years later, and the houses we’re all gone,
The wall had been pulled down as well, just piles and piles of stone.
The rubbish must have held a hundred balls, we got them back at last,
And years of Earsham Streets secrets were buried in the past!