For a Child

For a Child

Cave Rock is made of toffee
And the sea of lemonade
And the little waitress wavelets
Are always on parade
When cars roll down to Sumner
On a Sunday.

The ice-cream mountain on the blue
Is free for anyone,
And Scarborough Head looms solid
As a tearoom tuppenny bun
When mum and dad look glum or glad
At Sumner on a Sunday.

And wistfully the children sit
While Army trombones teach
That only Christ, not Cortes,
Can land upon the beach,
At Sumner when the seas roll in,
At Sumner on a Sunday.

?For a Child?, first published in Recent Poems (Caxton Press, 1941), ? Denis Glover 1941, from Enter Without Knocking (Enlarged edition, Pegasus Press, 1971), used by permission of the Denis Glover Literary Estate.Recording from the Waiata New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive 1974.

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