PENKNIFE

when i walked out one rainy
grey midsummers morning
i planned to walk to lunnun town
that city so alluring

i got my geese some tarmac shoes
to lead us to temptation
or to take us up to high barnett
to profit from inflation

i hooked a bag upon my back
i cut mysel' a stick
i bid goodbye to ma and pa
and set off something brisk

through forests fields and hamlets
towards the city smoke
the jiggered deer jumped roman roads
and holy toads did croak

the fret rolled up the downs i trod
salting grass for ship
i wode on and whistling
untill i yearned to kip

the night fell down as rain did
i was beasted i was tired-oh
i strung up tight a bivouac
and feasted on a sourdough

the morning came i found mysel'
in merrie edenbridge
i packed my tent and caught the train
to straight lunnun vic

i wrote this poem after learning that geese-keepers would dip their geese’s feet in tarmac and then make the 3 or 4 day walk to london to sell them at the market, and the geese would be walked along in their tarmac shoes. barnet fair was a huge market at one point. that’s where the cockney rhyming slang for hair comes from – barnet fair, hair. i tried to make the walk myself to london, mimicking a gooseman or a highwayman or a dick wittington type. i used old sussex vocabulary. to jigger means to surprise, a fret is a salty seafog, ship are sheep, beasted means tired i guess.

on my actual walk i rememeber ma and pa shaking their actual heads in humourous disbelief. i got to edenbridge and couldn’t walk anymore,for the aching in my weak and wet legs.