Our poet today, Brian Ford, has found albums full old picture postcards – portals to other lives, other worlds. It is Day 744 of the Daily Poems.
Postcards
I found it at the back of the big barn in Grandad’s yard.
An old book?
(Grandad Ford – pig breeder, firewood seller,
collector/buyer of secondhand household goods;
furniture, ornaments, pictures, kitchen and garden implements,
supposedly for resale at a profit,
although most of them ended up in the big barn on his small holding.
On most Sundays Dad and I visited him there).
The book was an album, full of old picture postcards,
from the first World War, Edwardian and Victorian eras,
many of them with messages written on the back.
‘I’m sending you a few fags
‘Tell Tiddie to take great care of Kath.’
‘I hope you’ve got all the beans strung up properly. You must buck up
Harry.’
And, on the back of a view of peaceful countryside,
with two horses pulling a plough in the foreground;
‘Could just do with a walk through here.’
Genuine messages from actual people,
not fiction from a film or TV drama,
or pictures in a book,
real history,
held in my hand,
a glimpse into other lives, other worlds.
I now have twelve albums full of old picture postcards.
Brian Ford