Heart Stopper!A Poem by David Lewis PagetHe
crashed on into our dining room Like
a man convulsed with pain, And
breathless, gasped as he tried to ask, ‘What
have you done with Jane?’ I
stood En Guarde by the mantelpiece And
clutched at a kitchen knife, ‘Who
are you, and what do you want? You’re
talking about my wife!’ He
leant exhausted against the wall And
groaned, like a man obsessed, I
thought he could have escaped somewhere That
he might have been possessed. ‘I
can’t believe she’s done it again, She’s
going against the plan, I’ve
told her time, and time out of time To
wait for her rightful man.’ ‘See
here,’ I said, with a touch of fear, ‘She’s
mine, with never a doubt, We
married a couple of years ago So
I think I’ll show you out.’ ‘I
have to stay ‘til I see her face She’ll
remember when I do, If
you can’t stand up to the challenge, then She
never should be with you.’ He’d
hit a nerve, and he knew he had For
I’d never been too sure, For
Jane had always been hesitant When
I’d asked for her hand before. I
thought there might have been someone else Lurking
behind her fan, A
former lover, she’d have no other Now
here was this crazy man! I
sat him down in an easy chair And
gave him a shot of Beam, Then
took a double shot for myself, And
stared at him, in a dream. I
tried to imagine her with him And
it shook me, without doubt, For
I could tell that they’d couple well, Then
wished that I’d thrown him out. Jane
came back home from her shopping spree, Came
in through the broken door, And
stood aghast at the pile of glass He’d
smashed there, down on the floor. The
stranger stood, he jumped to his feet And
held out a shaking hand, ‘I
thought I saw you out in the street, Don’t
you know me, I’m your man!’ She
held her nerve and she looked at him As
a stranger, far away, ‘I
seem to recall,’ she muttered, ‘but… ‘All
that was another day.’ ‘Another
day in a another time, The
fifth, but never the last,’ He
looked at her with his pleading eyes, ‘Please
try to remember the past.’ Then
Jane went white as a cotton sheet And
said, ‘You couldn’t be Paul! I
left you last in the marketplace, Leaning
againt a wall.’ ‘The
soldiers came, and took us away,’ He
said with the slightest tear, ‘They
took us behind a barn that day…’ I
said, ‘What’s going on here?’ It
was suddenly like I’d disappeared There
were only two in that room, Their
eyes were locked in an act of grace That
I couldn’t share in the gloom. ‘Of
course, it’s coming on back to me, The
bed in that cheap hotel,’ She
seemed to blush as her eyes cast down, And
my heart had stopped, as well. ‘I’ve
had just all I’m about to take,’ I
said, ‘I want you to go! And
Jane, just tell me for heaven’s sake You
continue to love me so.’ The
man stood up and he shook her hand And
he said, ‘That’s really an art. I
didn’t think you could act, my dear, I
was wrong, you get the Part!’ David
Lewis Paget © 2014 David Lewis PagetFeatured Review
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