GOING UP IN THE WORLD
(Composed prior to 1971; no known manuscript; reconstructed from memory by Editor. Sadly I have only been able to remember scraps of this poem.)Oh I lived in a house in Brownley Green, tra la!
A council house, so you know what I mean, tra la!
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Dragged up my roots and full of gloom
I bought a box in Cheadle Hulme,
Glory and halleluia!
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I pay through the nose and it appears
The house which I’ll own in a hundred years
Has swallowed my whole resources.
I had to get rid of my motor-bike, tra la.
She said to me, “Mick, don’t you think you’d like – a car?”
A car!
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And we’ve got to keep up with the bleeding Joneses
Who’re only been sent to try me.
Now I used to fancy a you-know-what
After my dinner as like as not
So I slipped my arm around her waist –
She said “Here, Mick, you’re a damned disgrace,
In Cheadle Hulme there’s a time and place
And after my dinner, cor blimey!
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For when I’m tired of the toil and strife
Then I’ll draw the blinds and I’ll BEAT THE WIFE!
That’s a pleasure she won’t deny me!
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