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View Article  Blog day 468: Send her flowers?

In some quarters, I have a reputation for a stony heart. I can appear so efficient, the assumption is that 'I have no soul' I was once told by a colleague. Just before leaving that particular establishment, someone asked me if anything made me cry. "Oh, yes," I said. "Christmas carols." That was a long time ago and, at my leaving do, the more creative members of staff composed a ditty to sing to me, to the tune of an unmistakable carol. It had the desired effect.

Many years later, quite soon after I had walked out on my first husband, I was asked to give advice to four men: "What should a man do to stop his wife leaving?" To cut a long story short, I suggested the man should (a) buy her flowers (not so often as to make it a habit and not so rare for it to become suspicious) (b) take her out for a meal, a show, whatever, not just because it was her birthday and (c) tell her he loves her every day. I still think it's sound advice, but if truth be told, it's the flowers that win the day, for me.

One astute man of that foursome asked me if, had my husband bought me flowers would I have left him. He is now my second (and, I hope, my final) husband and today he bought me flowers.

Send her flowers?

If you've screwed up so bad
That she won't even talk
If you think maybe today
Is the day she will walk
Never to return ...
Send her flowers?

Your silence is not strong
It just amplifies pain
So beg her to stay or
Risk never seeing again
Your true love ...
Send her flowers?

Now if someone can set that to a Christmas carol, we can all have a good weep?

 

View Article  Blog day 467: Nothing

I broke my ankle nearly five weeks ago so I have been confined to quarters for far too long. I do escape occasionally thanks to the kindness of my driver but, mostly, I am trapped, here inside my head.

Nothing

Do you know: nothing beats a public hanging?
Watch the crowd as they bay with delight.
Feel the surge of joy as he swings
And witness the rhythm of his dangling feet.

Who tried this man? Was it you?
Who heard the evidence against?
I heard that the finger pointing out his misdemeanors
Was attached to the hand that handled his defence.

It's too late now - the excitement is over.
The beating has left his wounded heart.
Gone is the victim of your misunderstanding
And nothing will revive his love-bearing spark.

View Article  Blog day 466: Long odds

Been a long summer and not much sun. I am better off than I was: blessed with two beautiful granddaughters. On the flip side, I have a broken ankle which, three weeks after the event, is now on the mend. So, things have been tricky and I've not been in the mood to write ...

Yesterday, I took up a challenge and this is what I wrote for the MoreWriting Poetry Flash - in 15 minutes. It is flawed but then so is life?

Long odds

They forecast long odds
I see only short returns
And a heart at stake
While the money burns

The vampires smile
Revealing a toothy grin
Jaws snaps into place
And suck the blood within

They call it interest
What you have to pay
Monthly, they promise
But it compounds every day

You’re never out of debt
Not while the bankers bleed
The life out of the economy
And leave the poor in need

Then they dish out bonuses!
For a job so badly done
Losses, off the balance sheet
By gamblers having fun

They forecast long odds
I see only short returns
And saving is now a joke
Just like the interest it earns