Indoor Games near Newbury

In among the silver birches,

Winding ways of tarmac wander

And the signs to Bussock Bottom,

Tussock Wood and Windy Break.

Gabled lodges, tile-hung churches

Catch the lights of our Lagonda

As we drive to Wendy’s party,

Lemon curd and Christmas cake

Rich the makes of motor whirring

Past the pine plantation purring

Come up Hupmobile Delage.

Short the way our chauffeurs travel

Crunching over private gravel,

Each from out his warm garage.

O but Wendy, when the carpet

Yielded to my indoor pumps.

There you stood, your gold hair streaming,

Handsome in the hall light gleaming

There you looked and there you led me

Off into the game of Clumps.

Then the new Victrola playing;

And your funny uncle saying

"Choose your partners for a foxtrot.

Dance until it's tea o'clock

Come on young 'uns, foot it feetly."

Was it chance that paired us neatly?

I who loved you so completely.

You who pressed me closely to you,

Hard against your party frock.

"Meet me when you've finished eating."

So we met and no one found us.

O that dark and furry cupboard,

While the rest played hide-and-seek.

Holding hands our two hearts beating.

In the bedroom silence round us

Holding hands and hardly hearing

Sudden footstep, thud and shriek

Love that lay too deep for kissing.

"Where is Wendy? Wendy's missing."

Love so pure it had to end.

Love so strong that I was frightened

When you gripped my fingers tight.

And hugging, whispered "I'm your friend."

Goodbye Wendy. Send the fairies,

Pinewood elf and larch tree gnome.

Spingle-spangled stars are peeping

At the lush Lagonda creeping

Down the winding ways of tarmac

To the leaded lights of home.

There among the silver birches,

All the bells of all the churches

Sounded in the bath-waste running

Out into the frosty air.

Wendy speeded my undressing.

Wendy is the sheet's caressing

Wendy bending gives a blessing.

Holds me as I drift to dreamland

Safe inside my slumber wear