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.

Posted in Funny Me! PoetryTagged ancestors british post war culture British Writer camp coffee cultural customs hot drinking chocolate humour literature mother-in-law nan ovaltine poetry social myths story telling wartime