We called it the wireless, <br />glowing lime green on its own shelf <br />flanked by plastic posies; <br />votive offerings to a humming diety <br />intoning in alien accents. <br /> <br />Bidden never to lay hands on it <br />I'd surf the cramped waves <br />fleeing the prim Home Sevice. <br />Stuttgart, Stockholm, Athlone, Prague <br />crackled briefly in a fizz of static. <br />Wheezing accordians signalled Lyons, <br />Bonn goose-stepped by, a snarl of guttural chatter. <br /> <br />One hissing night I found Caroline <br />at dials end, one-nine-nine medium wave. <br />Right there, right then <br />wireless became radio. <br />No more sitting comfortably <br />this was strutting stuff - <br />tin can sounds across magic ether. <br />Speaker cloth puffed off the dust of years, <br />throbbing to a gale of rock 'n' roll, <br />the wind of change came blowin', <br />cool, ultra-cool breath fanning new flames. <br /> <br />Born to staid parents, Volume and Tone, <br />a brand new baby; Noise. <br />Caroline and I dated most nights, <br />I repeated her words to my friends- <br />until they scuppered us.<br /><br />James Mills<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/wireless-becomes-radio/
