One Song to the Tune of Another © 2008 Rob Lock

Do you remember the lake, Dot, com-
panion, sister?
Do you remember the lake?
And the clouds that came in crowds?
And the breeze in the trees that cooled us by degrees?
And the chill from the hill if we stood too long stock still?
Do you remember the lake?

Oh the skipping to the dipping
and the dashing to the splashing –
the flashing …

And do you remember the inn?
Sam, with all his chancing?
And the glancing, and the dancing
of the Morris Men
with their curls and their swirls,
of the Morris Men
who danced without a girl?
Oh the bells in the fells,
and the hits with the sticks -
and heads feeling sore in the morning.

A poet could not but be gay.

Never more, Dot –
Now the chill from the hill
Is the prelude to a kill.

But do you remember the lake?
The laughs and the gaffs –
and, of course, the daffs?