Linus Lyszkowska
The Tinkers
We never saw them come,
We never saw them go,
Those travelling people, the tinkers.
Every summer
Their smoke-blackened tents would appear,
Pitched near the cave by the riverside.
Their pale-eyed, red-haired women,
Each year with a new red-haired babe
Strapped tightly to their chests
In rough, plaid shawls,
Would go begging around the village.
Mum always gave them something,
But it was never enough,
They’d linger on, wanting more,
Food for the bairns,
Money for the bairns,
Clothes for the bairns,
Buy my clothes-pegs!
Veiled threats behind those pale eyes.
Mum was always quiet after they had gone,
Upset, a deep sadness in her caring, brown eyes.
They came back to haunt her
In her troubled days.
‘There’s a tinker woman with children
standing by the summer-house. Please,
please ask them to go away!’ she’d beg us,
Clinging to us, visibly distressed,
Trembling, frightened even.
But there was no-one there.
At least, no-one that we could see.
Page(s) 45
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