Poem: Coming down

Coming down

Let me see
I’ve got a cabin trunk
A gramophone as well
That’ll mean a case of records
And a Gladstone bag, oh hell!
The train’ll be quite chilly, I’d better take a rug
And on the way, I’ll settle down and get up quite a fug

I’d better take
- my golf clubs
- my skates
- my ski-ing kit
A little winter sporting
Always keeps a fellow fit

Of course I’ll have a suitcase
With my shaving kit and things
Smith can find me quite a handy one
That one he always brings
Then there’s my umbrella, which must not be forgot
That’s the worst of the English climate
It’s sure to rain a lot
And I’d better take a book box to look a bit like work
It’ll give a bad impression if I don’t - they’ll think I’m a shirk

This is sickening, there’s my overcoat
It won’t go in the trunk
If I’m ever going to catch that train
I really have to bunk
Thank heaven it’s not summer and I don’t have any bats
But to any fool its obvious that I cannot wear three hats

My hat!
That’s that
I’m rather good at packing
There’s one thing lacking
As human nature stands
I’ve only got two hands
Of course I’d have a taxi in quite a simple way
If it were even likely that I could ever pay
I can’t catch a bus at Emma
What an envious dilemma!

A worthier suggestion worms its way to me
With all this pile of clobber, I shall never catch that train
Since I am not ambidextrous nor an octopus I find
I’ll simply pack a toothbrush, and leave the rest behind

Lorna wrote this poem when she was an undergraduate student at Cambridge.