Land Girl Song

Land Girl (Timber Corps) we

wore britches and green pullovers
wellingtons and woolly stockings
landlady made the loveliest Cornish pasties
stationed in Rickmansworth
had our first freedom from home
from old-fashioned parents
seventeen – it was early days

who the hell wants to hear the same story
fifty times?
we’re too old to learn new stories

cut down by hand
didn’t have anything electric
bobbed the branches off
came down to London to find boyfriends
didn’t give a damn about the air-raids

why should I remember?

the bombs coming down I can remember
lost our house on Clyde Road
this blooming bomb
parents came out faces blackened
we had no clothes left
bombs didn’t give you time to pack
air-raid wardens with dimmed lights
Clyde Road
was full of Jewish people
parents coming down the road eating bizzers
sitting on the front steps eating melon seeds
we had a German Jew refugee staying
he was glad to be amongst Jewish people
young man
the nazis
my father used to swear at them in Arabic

can you speak Arabic?

the old words
the odd words I remember:
a song about trees.


Evelyn Hazan, Victoria Setton, Nancy Davis
5 September 2008