1950s
I
Black as newsprint and round as bowler hats
Tall chimneys puff away like cigarettes,
Away, away… until the time that lets
Them crumble or replaced by council flats.
But smoke still tumbles from some chimney tops,
A television set glows in a dark
Room lit by coal. How long will time let park
An armchair by a fire until it stops?
II
But furniture is changing, too; brand new
With pine and plastic sitting in a room
As pert as house plants that now people groom
Beside the gleaming radiogram on view.
Such is the exhibitionistic time
For car and fridge, the glossy record sleeve
And frozen food: a land of make-believe
Consigned make-do-and-mend to nursery rhyme.
