Richard George
Ratty and Mole on London Underground
It’s her first time on the Tube:
Her mother says,
We’re in a tunnel under the ground,
Like Ratty and Mole!
A man gives up his seat:
Now, what do we say?
Say Thank You to the man!
Sorry about her manners ...
But all our smiles converge
As totally absorbed
She stares, too young to fear
Through the looking-glass of her first book
At Badger with a beard,
Toad puffed up in a business suit,
Rat with luggage, practical.
And Mole? Why, Mole, of course,
Who offered her his place.
And we just long to protect her
From the Wild Wood above us:
Unlike ourselves, this instant,
As Ratty and Mole.
It will not be us she remembers.
Page(s) 23
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