Cosy Corner - Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull

Gerald Bostock, fresh from school with few O-levels, sets his sights

No grand, fanciful fantasies but level headed middle ground

The retail trade, the corner shop, at humble service of plain town-folk

Open at nine and closed by six: enough to work, play, work around

Regulars drop by to chat in idle gossip, repetition

Same old words, another day while, all the time, life slips away

But slips so slowly, stretches moments into hours and hours to years

With characters by Harold Pinter, dark silences, slow Passion Play

Then home to fire up model trains and shunt and shuffle wagons, locomotive

breath upon his brow

Smooth clockwork running motors hum while barren Madge prepares hot dinner

Fray Bentos pie: always a winner

So, praise life’s routine cozy habits

And don’t forget to call your Mum