Dancing Dust
	Poems by Mollie Caird (1922-2000)
	North Oxford goes west
Home Alphabetic index of poems Thematic index of poems Biography Gallery Contact and links	The ladies of North Oxford Are no longer shabby tabbies, They are mini-skirted lovelies With a taste for modern fun; The enjoy their weekly beano At the Summertown casino, With a flutter on the chemmy And a fling at vingt-et-un. The ladies of North Oxford Are no longer stolid scholars, They are dashing, dilettante And unwearyingly bright; No more the well-starched bodices Can harbour Sanskrit codices - Their floating chiffon blouses are Transparent as the light. The ladies of North Oxford Are no longer tea-cup tattlers, For they like refreshment often And they like their liquor hard; They eat and drink in snatches Between heroin and hashish, They are flowery, happy, hippy And most avant-avant-garde. The ladies of North Oxford Are no longer torrid Tories, Nor sweetly sentimental, Nor a bromide, nor a bore: Gone are their old traditions, They have slain their inhibitions - For the ladies of North Oxford Are not ladies any more. The Oxford Times reported that members of the North Oxford Residents' Association wanted to change the 'false image' of North Oxford, which was popularly supposed to be a district of large Victorian houses inhabited by old-fashioned ladies of leisure. Oxford Times, 22 March 1968 The Dancing Dust and other poems, 1983