Was that a look of sympathy
Granddad showed to the camera?
And who took the photograph?
The lock-keeper or a passer-by?
It's far too late to discover.
I was only seven years old
At the time - sometime around

Nineteen-Fifty or thereabouts.
That's a long long time ago.

I think it highly improbable, but
Perhaps there's a reader out there
Who knows which lock and where?
All I know is it was the same water
Inside that Grand Union Canal
Somewhere in Northamptonshire
That passed the top of 'our road'
Somewhere in Paddington, London,
That briefly I'd called 'home'.

That day was 'Parent's Day'
At Grafton Regis Choir School for Boys,
And Grand-dad came as a substitute -
Why? I didn't actually know...
But I had a sneaky suspicion
Home was on the move again.

On that greyish afternoon

He took me to Stony Stratford.
He wanted to buy me a book.
And from all that was there,
All that I might have chosen from,
I chose a Christian Hymn Book.
I remember it had a blue cover.

Did he get that photograph taken
To prove to my missing parents
That I was alive and looking well?
Or was he really as proud of me
As I am of him? Oh, and the book
Stayed behind and was lost for ever

When I left the school - because

My 'home' was moving again...
This time to somewhere, erm

'Deep inside Hertfordhsire'.

© Griffonner 2026