What We Want

Painting by Gordon Beningfield


What We Want

The School of English Christmas Wish-List 2002

We want flats in London, shepherds’ huts,
houses by the sea. We want the smell of pine trees,
lavender and roses on pillows, fresh white sheets.
We want a cure for snoring, more hours to sleep,
more laughing dreams. We want convertibles
and window seats, movie posters and movie passes,
crystals and mirrors, ironwork in unexpected places.
We want unlined hands, half-moons in our nails,
smooth feet. We want good foot-balling knees
and J. Lo’s bum, faces that don’t give us away,
20/20 vision, hair that goes white not grey, bodies
of Greek gods that won’t shrink as we get older.
We want to be piano players, Salsa dancers,
lucky in cards and Lottery winners. We want
our books to write themselves, win contracts,
to say goodbye to QA and PhDs. We want to write
shining essays. And can we have more chairs,
more money, full time jobs? Can we please
abolish Comedy & Tragedy? And have gardens
that look after themselves, magic fireplaces
that light every morning and clean away at night,
clothes that don’t need ironing - purple shoes,
tight red leather skirts. We want cranks
to open our minds wider, devices to translate
what people really mean, to listen harder.
We want our futures to survive their construction,
for our children to get their degrees, to find
themselves, their places in this world,
and return to us safe and in health. We want
to remember them at their best. And for all of us
to be happy cats and birds, to drink good wine
and have the space and time to watch trees
change slowly. And if magic really does exist –
for Spurs to win the title, Liverpool the League,
for Bob Marley to rise and give us babies.
And less fear, yes less of that, no wars,
and more joy, freedom and peace, and peace
of mind, yes, much, much more of that.


Lynne Rees

One of my wishes listed in the poem was
'a house by the sea', and, now I live in one!
Maybe writing things down can make them come true
: ) L.R.

Posted over on Applehouse Poetry