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A Riff on Villon

                Ou sont les neiges d'antan?

When nights are long I sometimes try
To remember those girls from the County High;
Some were so lovely and some were mean,
Those girls I used to know.
What became of Christine? Where is Geraldine?
And where is last year’s snow?

Where are the stars that I used to see
On the family’s fourteen-inch TV?
Where is Petula Clark, for goodness’ sake?
Where did Alma Cogan go?
Where is Hattie Jacques? Ask - where are the flakes
That fell in last year’s snow?

And where are the women who had their hour
In the glaring spotlight of fame and power?
Where is Mrs T? Where is  Rosa Parks?
Where is glamorous Jackie O?
Gone into the dark with Joan of Arc -
And where is last year’s snow?

Where are the women full of fire,
Whose lives could thrill and inflame and inspire?
Only the stories about them last,
And in time they too will go.
What becomes of the past that leaves us so fast?
And where is last year’s snow?

George Simmers

If you have any thoughts on this poem,  George Simmers  would be pleased to hear them.


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