Roberta Writes – Esther Chilton’s Writing Prompt: Post #poetry

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Observations about postal services, blog posts and posters

Esther’s challenge for this week is to write about post. You can join in here: https://estherchilton.co.uk/2025/03/12/writing-prompts-56/. She meant post in the context of mail received through a postal service. This brought to mind the demise of South Africa’s postal service through corruption, theft, and mismanagement. It started with the theft of parcels which resulted in the establishment of private services for sending parcels. Amazon UK and US would no longer send parcels to South Africa via the government postal service and the services of private couriers had to be utilised for any orders from Amazon. This increased the cost of Amazon deliveries significantly and now I only purchase a few paperbacks in bulk orders and mainly read ebooks. Poor service soon resulted in the expansion of these private services to include the posting of letters and cards which just went missing or took three to four months to arrive at their destinations.

I didn’t want to write a poem about the sad disintegration of our postal service, but I thought I’d share it as an introduction to my poem about a poster so that my author readers understand why I generally purchase ebook copies of your books.

My next port of call was blog posts. I love reading interesting blog posts and I thought about writing a poem about posts but then I read a post by Rebecca Budd about her visit to the theatre and inspiration struck. You can read Rebecca’s post here: https://rebeccasreadingroom.ca/2025/03/16/and-then-there-were-none/

The Poster

The poster attracted my eye

“My Fair Lady’ splashed across its shiny surface

A black umbrella boldly silhouetted

Against a bright floral background

Childhood memories flooded my mind

Catherine and I singing ‘The Rain In Spain’

Me dressed in Mom’s bottle green theatre dress

Cath attired in a scarf dress in different shades of pink

Both of us sporting velvet theatre hats

One black, one dark blue

There was another, in brown tweed

That one languished, it was to masculine

For two giggling girls playing dress up

Who’d not yet reached double digit birthdays

Of course we had to go

Tickets were booked

The day awaited with eager anticipation

What a marvelous performance

Elize was magnificent

Henry Higgins perfect

With slouched shoulders

And a typical English cardigan in beige

The actor, another childhood memory

The lead in all my high school plays

It was a little shocking to see him

Sporting greying hair

But it worked, he was perfect for this role

We sang along with the songs

Clapped until our hands hurt

And laughed uproariously at the funny parts

In the basement, on the way to the car

We girls danced the can-can

While singing ‘Just You Wait’ at the top of our voices

Our menfolk lagged behind

Pretending they did not know

These two crazy women

Immersed in happy memories

Easter is coming so I’m taking the opportunity to remind you that Michael and I have a Sir Chocolate Easter story. A book is so much better than more chocolate. Sir Chocolate and the Valentine Toffee Cupid is available from Amazon US here: https://www.amazon.com/Chocolate-Valentine-Toffee-Cupid-holidays-ebook/dp/B0BT9GBNHL

This is my YouTube video which still makes me smile!

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Published by robertawrites235681907

I am a writer of young adult fiction and poetry

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86 thoughts on “Roberta Writes – Esther Chilton’s Writing Prompt: Post #poetry”

  2. Robbie, I loved how you tied your childhood memories to the poster and the postal service. I can relate, though Israel’s postal service isn’t as bad as South Africa’s, it’s definitely gotten worse. It’s frustrating waiting for mail that gets delayed or lost.

    Much love,
    David

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  4. The postal service is not great here in Spain either. And in Canada the postal workers went on strike just before Christmas so there were no Christmas cards and packages sent or received. Go figure. I loved your poem very much and the trailer is delightful!

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  6. I’m sorry about your postal service. Ours is probably headed that way. However, recently we’ve had more problems with the private UPS than the government USPS.

    Your poem made me think about my own kids dressing up and playing and singing. 🥰

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  7. Thanks for sharing about your postal service dilemma. Inefficiency is one thing – but corruption is an entirely different matter. Your poem was a good antidote to the postal news. Reminded me of the many joys of youth and my appreciation for the theater. Timely because we went to a community theater performance yesterday. Have a good week.

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  10. How awful to have such an awful postal service.

    That said your poem was utterly delightful! What a fantabulous memory and love that you and your sister have so much fun together.

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  12. I am sorry to hear about the demise of your postal service Robbie although corruption in some areas is rife here the postal service is excellent within the country… the problem I have is when it involves UPS or Fedex and the charges imposed to get your parcel through customs..Your poem highlights the dressing up fun you and your sister had its lovely 🙂 x

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  14. Didn’t know about the demise of your national postal. Sigh. We’re trying to save ours, but really, what important mail is delivered by our little mail trucks anymore? Well, Amazon books, yes, but I did think they had their own delivery trucks, with permission to access mailboxes. Another sigh.

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  18. We no longer send Xmas cards between Australia and England, too expensive nd unreliable. I did send my sister a birthday card, but it was too late. Hers arrived late, but she hadn’t posted it till after my birthday. We have birthdays a week apart. I don’t think we’ll bother next year as we FaceTime frequently. Yes I quite understand why you buy ebooks and most of the books I buy from fellow bloggers are ebooks.

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  21. Robbie – it saddens me to think that you do not have reliable postal services. I am grateful for Canada Post which many of us take for granted. From time to time we do have strikes which reminds us of the importance reliable postal distribution. So, without question, postal services play a crucial role in connecting communities, facilitating commerce, and ensuring the timely delivery of essential goods and information. In Canada, the postal service is particularly noteworthy due to its extensive reach and reliability, making it accessible even in remote areas (and we have many remote areas). Canada Post supports local businesses by providing a platform for shipping products. It also fosters communication among Canadians, regardless of geographical barriers. Canada Post has embraced technological advancements, improving efficiency and customer experience.

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    1. The post service has slowly demise over the past 30 years until it broke down completely. It is not the only government service in turmoil, municipalities, water services, and the power provider have all just about collapsed. In the suburbs people make a collective plan but in the inner city and poor areas it’s a terrible problem. The piles of uncollected Ted rubbish in the inner city caused a huge rat problem and recently there have been deaths from food contaminated by rat poison. It’s sad to watch a country collapsing. We stay because we can make plans and pay for private services and our full families are here. I think we will be the last though. My sons will leave to seek our better lives and opportunities.

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  23. Wow, that is very interesting about your postal service, Robbie. It’s really too bad that corruption and theft did that. I think the way you went with this prompt was wonderful. I know we’ve both mentioned how much we love that musical, so it was perfect. I do like the trailer for your book and I haven’t got that one yet to read to the kids. I’ll check it out when I get back home and can read to and with them again.

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    1. Hi Carla, thank you for your interest in my books. I appreciate it very much. I love My Fair Lady and so does Cath. I like all musicals and always see these shows at the theatre whenever I can. I try to support South African theatre as this is another area where our government has failed.

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  27. I loved your “My Fair Lady” poem! It brought back so many memories of how much my parents loved the musical. Congratulations to you and Michael on your upcoming release! I have my eye on that big bowl of ice cream with sprinkles.

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  30. I have always enjoyed musicals, and ‘My Fair Lady’ is one of my favorites!

    Sorry to hear about your real postal issues. We do have some Porch Pirates (stealing packages) – and some mail theft… but so far our post, besides the rates continually rising is still pretty good.

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      1. There are so many different ‘things’ in different states… there are surprises at every turn. There have been some postal delivery stories of lost mail. There was even a TV series on the Hallmark channel that dealt with trying to return found lost mail to the person it was sent to. It was called “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” that ran for (at least) four seasons 🙂

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  31. What a sad state of your postal service. Terrible. I loved The Poster poem, and how you and your friend were swept up in My Fair Lady. I was, too (plus The King and I, South Pacific…and many more). Thank you for the memories!

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  32. I love “My Fair Lady”, too, and used to sing the songs. I’m sorry about your postal service. Stamps have gotten so high here in the U.S., I may not mail out Christmas cards this year. I’ve noticed that people are buying more ebooks because the cost of printed books has gotten so high. Cheers!

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