DOING HANDSTANDS AGAINST THE OLD CHURCH WALL

Well, I’m still a young girl

And pretty, I am told

And though I do the kindest things

There’s one at which they say I’m too bold.

After church service of an evening

Whether dark or light

I nip around the corner

And do handstands against the old church wall.

‘This is sacred ground you know,

What are you doing, girl?’

I reply, ‘I’m doing handstands against the old church wall.’

Well, I can’t see any wrong in it

And I enjoy it so

I place my hands on the cold soft grass

And up in the air I go.

Sometimes my feet don’t reach the wall

So I try again

I suppose I must do nine or ten

Just handstands against the old church wall.

It’s Holy ground I realise

But surely I can’t be bad

I’m only doing handstands against the old church wall.

‘Surprised at you, my girl,’ they say

Don’t they really know

How it passes time away

That sometimes goes so slow.

And yet, for a while, time stops there

And I go back in years

To when I was only five or six

And did handstands against this old church wall.

Maybe in years to come along

I’ll wander ‘round this way

I hope I’ll remember with gladness

Doing handstands against the old church wall.

Paul Dominic Gray   22nd July 1974