Colin F. Jones
~ Once Upon A Time ~
THE INITIATION
He totters on the edge of the black of the blackest black
Afraid to go forward; afraid to go back,
He stands there where they stood him looking very sick,
Around his neck tied to a rope hangs a heavy brick.
To go back is to be a coward to go forward is to die,
To stand there for an hour is the dare he has to try.
Time is ticking slowly and the tar fumes from the pit,
Rise into his nostrils trying to make him want to quit.
The other kids are yelling hoping he will break,
But to be branded as a coward would be a bad mistake.
But his legs are giving out and he sways towards the pit,
No longer can he stand there Oh! It looks like this is it.
As he was falling forward he felt them pull him back,
With cries, “Oh you have has done it, welcome to the pack”
©Copyright February 1, 2007 by Colin F. Jones
Author’s Note: My monthly theme poem was taken from my childhood in England. Near where we lived they were building a “New Estate”, new houses, roads… everything. Sometimes they had “lime pits” and “tar pits” for use in the construction, thus they were handy “dare spots” for our little gang. Another one was climbing a ladder leaning against a building or scaffold, and leaping into a sand pit covered with broken house bricks.
Once we hollowed out a stack of bricks on the footpath and five of us were able to fit inside where we had a fireplace to roast our ‘spuds’. People walking by thought they could hear voices inside the bricks so called the police.
The police called for us to come out, but we stayed silent; but the smoke from the fire gave us away, and eventually we had to climb out, spluttering and coughing. People were amazed to see five of us emerge from this stack of bricks. Those were the days.