CELIA'S POEMS

                Yesterday I was late,

                I slept in as I said,

                You’ll notice today I am on time,

                She dragged me out of bed.

                No 121  July 16

                The thing we really need right now,

                Is for someone to find a cure,

                I know that this will happen,

                They’ve done it all before.

                When we look back and think,

                About the illnesses we’ve come through,

                It makes you feel more confident,

                They’ll come up with something new.

                Smallpox, scarlet fever and TB,

                Were killers years ago,

                Athletes foot is nothing now,

                It was dreadful, as I know.

                When the Second World War was over,

                And the soldiers all came home,

                They brought back a thing called foot rot,

                It didn’t have a name.

                Well at 8 years old I went to the baths,

                Caught my toe and made it bleed,

                We know it now as Athletes foot,

                It took 3 years to get me freed.

                My toes were being eaten away,

                The doctors tried all they could,

                I couldn’t walk for 3 years,

                Their treatment was no good.

                When I took my 11 plus,

                My father carried me to my chair,

                When all the others went out to play,

                I just had to sit there,

                It never went beyond my toes,

                The only solution they had got,

                Was to cut all my toes off,

                Mum said “definitely not”

                After 3 years of suffering,

                Into hospital I had to go,

                It took 6 weeks to cure me,

                The relief no one could know.

                So it may take a while right now,

                They’ll find a cure I’m sure,

                It may still take them quite a while,

                But I’ve lived through it all before.