Sleeping In

I’ve always liked this poem by Englishman Roger McGough, and I thought of it again this morning when I walked out to the new-fallen snow covering the streets, sidewalks and yards – unblemished at the moment, just waiting for the tread of neighborhood kids’ feet, tire tracks, and – hopefully, if it keeps coming down like it is now – a snowplow (or lorrie as McGough’s poem says) to get us out.

Meanwhile, it’s a quiet, peaceful, snowy world, sleeping in on a Saturday morning.

Sleeping In

Our street is dead lazy
Especially in winter.
Some mornings you wake up
And it’s still lying there
Saying nothing.  Huddled
under its white counterpane.

But soon the lorries arrive
Like angry Mums,
Pull back the blankets
And send it shivering
Off to work.


 

Roger McGough

McGough, by the way, grew up in Liverpool, home to another rather well-known group of lads who made their way in the performance industry under the name The Beatles.  In the 1960s, McGough started making a name in his own right with the publication of the best-selling poetry book The Mersey Sound.   Since then he’s led a highly successful writing career as a performance poet, children’s author and playwright.  A broadcaster, too, he hosts the BBC’s “Poetry Please” show and still makes his home in the Mersey area of Liverpool.

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