JOHNMICHAEL SIMON POETRY

Who remembers

The Little King

Desperate Dan

dirty rascals?

 

My kids

escapees from

a Bourneville Cocoa advert

now bearded

kings of their own castles

would not

raise their hands

 

Yet they expect

me to remember

without fail

Burger King’s menu

Simpson children’s names

Flintstone’s gibberish warcry

Pink Floyd’s greatest hit

where were you, they ask?

 

To get my own back

I’m reading my grandchildren

Alice in Wonderland

and Winnie the Pooh

feeding them

toads in the hole

teaching them lyrics

from HMS Pinafore

 

And in return

they’re teaching me

how to download from the Internet

on to their cellphones

into their Ipods

 

Together we’re

bridging the generation gap

and they now treat me with the respect

an educated fossil deserves