Homework for w/e 5.5.14 - IN LIKE FLYNN

[Maureen K Clifford]

IN LIKE FLYNN
Maureen Clifford © The Scribbly Bark Poet


'ow are ya gonna do it? I ain't seen that done before.
Wouldn't have thought we stood a chance although I ain't real sure.
Did'na think it bloody likely, but a cove can never tell,
hope you're right mate 'cause if you ain't, we'll likely rot in hell.

Wadda ya mean I made ya do it? No I didn't, that's a laaf.
As if I'd do a thing like that, but hang on – give me half
a mo if ya please. Yea! Well politeness never hurts.
Me Mum bort me up proper, tort me not to talk like dirt.

Yea OK, alright then Matey, ya can count me bloody in
but I hope we ain't cort doing it 'cause it's a bleedin’ sin
and ya know old Father Michael he's a hard man that he is
and we'll never be forgiven if we're copped doin' this.

Right oh! I've got the hairy beastie, put the bridle on his head.
He don't seem really happy, but he's certainly well fed.
Do ya reckon he's a goer? OK! back him in the cart
and climb up here beside me and we'll give him a head start.

Mother of Mary, he's a cracker!!! Wot a bonza little beast
we'll have it in the bag I reckon? We could win - or very least
be in like Flynn, with this big thing a pullin' at the traces.
Bet Father Mike will be supris'd to see Billy at the races.

**

Oh and you boys would both be t’inking that the five pound prize is yours?
Though you won it using my goat – and you skived off doing chores
that your Mam and Da had set you. Oh! Its punishment you’ll get -
but what and when and where I haven’t figured out just yet.

Don’t Father Michael me! You’re both hooligans all right
Which one of you thought this prank up? A pretty bloody sight
you made recklessly jolting and careening ‘round the track
behind Sweet William who you stole from out behind my back.


Let the punishment fit the crime – if you like Billygoat races
perhaps you both should do a stint at pullin’ in the traces
The widow Murphy’s front paddock needs to go under plough
and two young fella’s strong like you should do the job somehow.

Her horse is sick and old and can no longer make the furrows
and her paddock’s somewhat undermined with little bunny burrows,
but I’m sure that these few obstacles smart lads can overcome
and the five pound prize you won, it’s going to the orphans home.

**

And he walked away from two small boys with sad and downcast faces
who had just received harsh punishment for kicking over traces
of their hard and humdrum lifestyle – but on his face was a grin
for the thing was , Jack and Tommy both reminded him of him.

[Neville Briggs]

You could double as a playwright, Maureen.

[Maureen K Clifford]

Could I Neville? On what do you base that assumption I've never considered it

[Neville Briggs]

It appears to me that C.J.Dennis did a lot of verse that consists of dialogue and it seems to lend itself easily to be being presented as stage drama.
I think that has been done with C.J.Dennis ( I might be corrected on that ).

Also on Saturday night I went to see a live theatre which was an Irish play, yours sort of reminded me of some of the play dialogue.
After all Maureen, Shakespeare wrote all his plays in verse. You weren't born in Warwickshire were you

[Maureen K Clifford]

Not me Neville - I'm a Kentish lass - albeit an old one