For the youth section, we've three three funny poems by Paul Curtis that transport the reader from childhood to the teenage years. It would be all to easy to take the route that portrays teens as feral youth, but Paul's poems paint an affectionate, if realistic, portrait of the young.
They’ve taken all the fun away
It’s prohibited from the school day
Thanks to the politically correct crusade
And the health and safety brigade
There can be no unacceptable names
Or boisterous competitive games
Now playing in the snow and ice
You must play games safe and nice
The nanny state has declared
That the nation’s children must be spared
But when I was a child we did alright
And we did survive an occasional fight
But we had more freedom in my view
We could choose what things to do
You didn’t have to climb in trees
Or pick the scabs off wounded knees
You didn’t have to play kiss chase
Or catch a snowball in the face
You didn’t have to make a slide in the snow
If you didn’t want to you could say no
Conkers was not a compulsory game
You didn’t have to call girls names
You could roll in the grass again and again
Or jump in puddles after heavy rain
You didn’t have to skip with girls
Or run with grass seed in your curls
If you didn’t want to there was no need
You could sit alone and quietly read
But if you chose to you could do it
And after all we were young and fit
My son is like a cat
There’s no doubt of that
All day long he sleeps
While the daylight seeps
Then with a few cat licks
He hits the pavement bricks
And stays out all night
Returning at first light
To where he resides
And when he slinks inside
Without a single word
He brings with him a tatty bird
I have three teenage sons
With appetites like men
And it costs a fortune
Feeding all of them
But due to the economy
Times are hard you see
So as they eat like men
At dinner time I told them
“Due to the current recession
Which may lead to a depression
Tough times are ahead you know
So we will have to let you all go"
Copyright © Paul Curtis