A Jolly Naughty Bank speaks out






Poetry inspired by museum artefacts is nothing new. Keats' Ode on a Grecian Urn is probably the best known example, and I read recently about Cambridge University's Thresholds project in the Museums Association Journal 

However nobody seems to have been inspired by the Muse to write about any of the items in what my friend Simon Heptinstall called Fairlynch Museum's "delightfully eclectic mix of locally donated period costumes, radioactive pebbles and natural history (ie, stuffed seabirds)" in his amusing 2001 Daily Telegraph article

There are some pretty odd things at Fairlynch, but that's possibly what a museum is all about.  

Anyway, here is what I was inspired to write about one of them:
I’ve got the most enormous mouth, my tongue is round and red.

My eyes are blue, my face is dark, my origin’s unsaid.

Cos I’m a Jolly Naughty Bank,

I sit here every day.

Some people think I’m curious,

And others look away.



I’ve got a hand, I hold it out for people to put in

A penny large and round which I acknowledge with a grin.

Cos I’m a Jolly Naughty Bank,

I sit here all the time

Some people think I shouldn’t be.

They tell me it’s a crime.



You work me with a lever, my hand goes up until

The penny drops and people laugh. They think it’s quite a thrill.

Cos I’m a Jolly Naughty Bank,

I’ve time to sit and think,

And wonder as I listen to

The ancient penny’s clink.



The penny has an image of Britannia o’er the waves,

That makes me wonder why it was they treated us as slaves.

I’m called a Jolly Naughty Bank

By those who know the facts.

I hope you feel embarrassed

By the history of the blacks.



So when you put the penny in and see my rolling eyes

Please think a little, share my thoughts and listen to my sighs.

Just see this Jolly Naughty Bank,

With all those pennies clinking

As the product of a nasty mind

Imbued with racist thinking.
© Michael Downes 2014


With acknowledgement to The Museum of Belief, curated by Bill Mayblin, husband of the late Andrea Levy.  When I wrote the above poem, I had consulted Mr Mayblin's website. A link to that site seemed to have been taken over by a Chinese blogger, which I found mysterious and annoying as Mr Mayblin had written an excellent article about the 'Jolly Naughty Bank'. 
His Museum of Belief website does not seem to be functioning as I write, but he refers to it at https://ifsopress.com/2018/06/11/bill-mayblin-the-benefits-of-not-being-an-expert/

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