With the A level results just in, a poem to enlighten, or perhaps warn, all  ‘packhorses’ (and indeed lecturers) as they help deliver their off-spring to their halls or residence: by Milly Adams, author of The Waterway Girls series (Arrow)

In the Corridor of a College Lodgings by Milly Adams

 

‘Who’s this?’ the lecturer asked my daughter.

She said, all bare midriff with tattoo peeping,

‘Only Mum. She’s carrying my plants,

Helping to move me in.’

‘Hello, Mum,’ he said, not looking, just

Brushing

The leaves of the ornamental fig as he passed.

A plant, my daughter felt, would make her room

Look familiar, lived in. ‘Like you,’ she’d joked.

At her doorway I placed it in her arms,

But it was his bustling back I watched

As he turned this way and that

Distributing greetings to other beasts of

Burden.

Not waiting for their replies, either.

I called, too loud perhaps, ‘My name is

Rosemary.

I usually wear stiletto shoes, and pink jackets.

When not camouflaged as a removal man

I have cycled the Alps for charity. If you’d

Looked

You’d have seen highlights in my hair.

I belly dance and have a name.

My name, again, is Rosemary.’

 

‘Way to go, Mum,’ my daughter whooped,

And up and down the corridor’s length and

Breadth

Plants. laptops and kindles were handed

Over.

Students were kissed with love. And left.

‘Yes, we have names,’ we all said.

As thoughts of achievements big and small

Lent wings to trainers. ‘And places to go. And

Lives to live.

Fashion statements to make, and parameters

To break.’

 

Goodbye, Lecturer,’ we smiled, as we passed by.

 

Hope on the Waterways, the final in the Waterway Girls series, is published on 20th September.

The Waterway Girls, and Love on the Waterways are available now.