A Hot Cup of Cocoa Anyone?
There goes the
CLACKETY, CLACKETY, CLACK
Of the cocoa spoon.
Chocolate flavoured false comfort
In a mug.
Just enough for everybody
While they sit and watch
The rest of the evening
Film. Not for me, no.
I’m both too old and yet
Too young for that level
Of self-denial.
She didn’t even make it
With boiled milk,
How undignified!
“A nice cup of cocoa will help you sleep!”. Not only will it help you sleep, but it will help you regress too;
Back to a time when the world was at war,
Families and whole communities were brought together, all under one roof with only a tin bath and
A piss-pot between them all. Oh, what
Would they have done
Without their blessed
Cocoa to stop the
Bombs and the nasty
Mr.Hitler keeping
Them awake at night?
And yet there they all
Are, downstairs, ancestors
And all, sipping at
The legend that is
Always far too hot to
Drink; with the hope
That the myth of its
Restorative powers
May indeed give them
Solace from the day’s
Woes, if albeit for a
Good eight hours.
Isn’t cocoa full of caffeine
Anyway? Surely that is
The point of making it
With hot milk – if the
Caffeine keeps you awake,
Then the hot milk is
There to counteract it,
And hopefully knock you
Out for the count
“?”
Nevermind.
My Nan always used to
Make it with milk.
In fact powdered milk
And water. Actually my
Nan’s preferred
Bedtime tipple was
Ovaltine; and I’d
Be allowed to have
A very weak ‘Camp Coffee’,
Also made with hot
Milk! I remember she
Made the same CLACKETY,
CLACK sound with the
Spoon as she stirred
The hot milk and syrupy
Coffee mixture. Another
Legacy of days gone by.
Same level of caffeine
As cocoa I shouldn’t
Wonder. Yet coffee
Wakes you up and
Cocoa makes you sleep!
Not the same at all!
It always used to confuse
Me as a child.
And here I am now,
An adult, all the
Wiser, and sipping water.
I’m sitting upstairs,
Alone.
I’ve seen the film before;
And it sounds as if
The ancestors are fast
Asleep, lulled into
A deep slumber,
No doubt, by the powdered
Chocolatey goodness that
Makes the teaspoons go,
CLACKETY, CLACK against
The mug; that certain
Stirring motion that is
Full of reminiscence
And abject denial
Of sound logic.