User:Charlie Chadwick/sandbox

I am in possession of an original manuscript written as a poem by Kuklos before WW2. It is 16 lines long. It would be nice to see it appear alongside his other works.

"The Rally of North Lancs"

Now bring to me my bike of steel, and blow the tyres up,

Fit me a milk-white bunny-tail, dear Hore Belisha's pup;

For I will ride on Ribbleside to join the roving ranks

Who'll swell this day that glad array, the rally of North Lancs!

Smile, Pendle, on the stirring scene, and hold the rain clouds back;

Oh, may there be no need indeed to hide with shapeless mack

Those girls so nice in sleeveless blice* and shapely shorted shanks

Who've drawn the boys in hundreds to the Rally of North Lancs!

Look where our flag displays the wings and wheel of C.T.C!

It waves o'er lightweights fairy-like, the fast, the fine, the free!

No Push-Bikes and no Fire Escapes, no Eiffel Towers or Tanks-

No such machine shall e'er demean the Rally of North Lancs!

Then let us sing God Help the King, and Mary too, his Missis;

And Glory be to Bicycles, to Girls and Tours and Kisses;

Lets give to all a vote (not small) of very bestest thanks

Whose toil doth crown with such renown the Rally of North Lancs!

* Plural of 'blouse'. Compare mouse-mice, louse-lice

The original ms I have of this poem includes pencilled notes to a printer stressing no alterations to the punctuation !!

The Rally of North Lancs is a reference to a cycling rally held in pre-war years at Bolton by Bowland in Lancashire.

I am an ex cyclist, now aged 80 and can be reached at   'david@thomas-itc.co.uk'