I promised to go back to my anthology and seek out a poem, I had studied, in High School.

Here is one, with some of my associated 'graffiti'.



THE RESPONSIBILITY

I am the man who gives the word,
If it should come, to use the Bomb.

I am the man who spreads the word
From him to them if it should come.

I am the man who gets the word
From him who spreads the word from him.

I am the man who drops the Bomb
If ordered by the one who's heard
From him who merely spreads the word
The first one gives if it should come.

I am the man who loads the Bomb
That he must drop should orders come
From him who gets the word passed on
By one who waits to hear from him.

I am the man who makes the Bomb
That he must load for him to drop
If told by one who gets the word
From one who passes it from him.

I am the man who fills the till,
Who pays the tax, who foots the bill
That guarantees the Bomb he makes
For him to load for him to drop
If orders come from one who gets
The word passed on to him by one
Who waits to hear it from the man
Who gives the word to use the Bomb

I am the man behind it all;
I am the one responsible.

-----------Peter Appleton (b.1925)



..there are two phrases which stand out in my scribbled student notes:-

"passing the buck!" ...and... "MUTUAL RESPONSIBILITY"

(the first is in my neatest writing and the second is in scruffy upper case and underlined)

I honestly can't remember whether those were ideas put to me by my English teacher, or whether they came from me.

I also wonder whether there is any significance in the way the notes were written - was it:-

a/ my subconscious decision on which made most sense?

b/ the idea which was stressed the most by my teacher?

c/ just the random way my pencil hit the paper that day?

**as far as irrelevant graffiti goes, it's mostly stars and squiggles - no words of major wisdom!**