Lucky Dip Number 32
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A Tale Untold
To tell you this story where shall I start? Let me choose a place that is near to my heart, A place where on holiday I often am found, A Cornish working harbour and delightful surround. But instead of one harbour I should have said two Thus offering the visitor much more to do, And along one-way streets this historic town Will slope with you steeply to these harbours down, But be warned that close to the walls you'll be pressed Should a car with you meet and pass you abreast. The harbours had a cafe with a balcony sea view Where I'd sit with my wife at a table for two, Till a builder as rich as I think he was mean Replaced it with houses that imprison the scene. It's less a town than a village, I know, But no more delightful a place can you go, And to eat Cornish pasty in the sun sitting there Is to feel like your world has had never a care. A house to the cliff-top seems closely to cling Where a bright Autumn day such beauty must bring Gazing out over harbour and farther to strand And to coast in the distance merging into the land. One road leaving town near this coastline will stay With a view looking down on the curve of a bay Round which silver sand like a necklace is hung And friends there vacationed when children were young. Do fishing boats here leave the harbour at night And come back again in the soft morning light? Do trawlers that linger far out on the seas Reduce the catch quota for small boats like these? Do still smaller boats trap lobsters by day? I've so little knowledge what more dare I say! A small museum's here that I guess I'd do well To visit and some of my ignorance dispel, Or question the seagulls that seem to know best Although with due deference they must be addressed And an arrogant look they will give me that says We don't expect more from our visitors these days. But with this diversion I'm carried away Till I clean have forgotten what I started to say! And in spite of vacations we often spend there Nothing else strikes me that's worthy to share. So I only can trust 'twill come back to me yet Though this grows less likely the older I get, And why, you may ask, should you 'list' to my tale If it travels like this at the pace of a snail? |