A childhood memoir of life before polio, and immediately after, and my magical childhood adventures in and out of a wheelchair
The Royal Hotel and "The Drayman's Lorry"
Foden Steam Wagon
I swear I saw it
Parked outside The Royal Hotel:
Coke-stoked and shimmering
In the summered-heat
The barrel-men, the dray-men
Feeding this hissing monster
That glowed like a dragon
The very noise of it
Frightened the five-years
Out of me!
Then lumbered long and hard
Back to the yard
To grow cold again
Or did they leave it
Gently panting
Through the dark?
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