{"id":10202,"date":"2022-03-20T11:28:07","date_gmt":"2022-03-20T11:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stuartpoetry.art\/?p=10202"},"modified":"2022-03-20T11:42:55","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T11:42:55","slug":"thimble-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/2022\/03\/20\/thimble-town\/","title":{"rendered":"Thimble Town"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fun starts as soon as you enter these gates\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

There were no gates<\/p>\n

As they were still in Rotterdam<\/p>\n

Somebody had already defaced the poster<\/p>\n

Free Auschwitz Tours<\/em><\/p>\n

Buy your Tickets Now\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It was only days old but the so called artists had arrived<\/p>\n

I stood at the minimalist bus stop at the entrance to Thimble Town<\/p>\n

Indeed the development looked splendid but it was without life<\/p>\n

Geraldine and I had decided to bring Ronny to see the new electric trains<\/p>\n

Rather like the irrigation systems on the Somerset Levels<\/p>\n

The railway lines were grid chic grid<\/p>\n

Yet over complicated<\/p>\n

But they were spectacular as the overhead wires often arced<\/p>\n

As the trains passed by which for some reason pleased the eye<\/p>\n

Archie was standing next to the high wire fence watching the trains pass<\/p>\n

Danger of Death<\/em><\/p>\n

Do not touch the overhead wires\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

For some reason this warning sign was orange and green<\/p>\n

The corporate colours of the development company<\/p>\n

It was hard to read in the sunlight<\/p>\n

But if you were stupid enough<\/p>\n

To disobey its order<\/p>\n

It was likely that you were illiterate in the first place<\/p>\n

When they developed Thimble Town\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

They let me stay here\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The company refurbished my house\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

But I lost most of my garden\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

As they widened the road\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

My cats were buried there\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Just where you are standing\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

A woman of about eighty years was standing in front of her house<\/p>\n

She was watching Mitchell and Lucy as they waited for the next train to pass<\/p>\n

I am very happy with the alterations that they made to my house\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It is so very easy to live in now and so warm\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I ignore the noise of the trains\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

But I feel Thimble Town has lost its heart\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It has no character no character at all\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In a way it is mundane<\/em><\/p>\n

Two girls walked past the woman<\/p>\n

She greeted them with a smile<\/p>\n

One girl possibly the younger of the two<\/p>\n

Had bright purple hair whereas the other had green hair<\/p>\n

These are the people who care for us\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

They bring us our shopping if we are unable to do so\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Or just keep us company if the weather is poor\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

They are all called The Maureen’s\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

My Maureen has blue hair bit she does not work on Tuesdays\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

These girls are off to Malcolm Terrace and Malcolm Square\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

That is where the newsagents shop is\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It is run by a Mr White who is the son of the older Mr White\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The newsagents was called Charlotte and the Gang<\/p>\n

Which puzzled me a little<\/p>\n

I popped in and as it was Sunday looked for my Non League Paper<\/p>\n

With every purchase Mr White was giving away a blue and yellow flag<\/p>\n

I purchased a Sunday newspaper a comic for Douglas and my football paper<\/p>\n

You seem very quiet Mr Fair there is nobody here at all\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I have seen at the most thirty people today\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

And this includes my own reflection in the south east\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I wanted to call my shop Mr White’s Newsagent\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

But Carphilly Hills insisted on the Charlotte name\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

They even supplied the yellow and blue flags\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I will be lucky to see twenty people today\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

You are my first customer\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I gave him a copy of my most recent novel<\/p>\n

A thriller set in the world of ultra modern irrigation systems<\/p>\n

He gave it to his dog Charlotte<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DP 2022<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fun starts as soon as you enter these gates\u00a0 There were no gates As they were still in Rotterdam Somebody had already defaced the poster Free Auschwitz Tours Buy your Tickets Now\u00a0 It was only days old but the so called artists had arrived I stood at the minimalist bus stop at the entrance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10202"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10206,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10202\/revisions\/10206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}