Fair Exchange

A Poem by David Lewis Paget

I probably failed to like the man

For he went with my ex-wife,

I hated the way she called him Stan,

As if he was hers for life.

They’d both been playing away from home

For a year, so said his ex,

I only heard from the grapevine bird

In a message of plain text.

‘Your wife’s been seeing my husband for

A year now,’ said the note,

‘If you’d like to know all the details

I can give them, creed and rote.’

I wandered round to the place she said

And she ushered me inside,

She said she wouldn’t have bothered me

But suffered from wounded pride.

It seemed that they had been meeting

Every time I was away,

My job as a travelling salesman

Kept me on the road each day.

I’d be away for a week or more

But I thought that things were fine,

She didn’t say that she’d let him play

With the things I thought were mine.

I couldn’t believe he’d cheat on her,

When I looked at the wife of Stan,

She said that her name was Isabel

As she reached and squeezed my hand,

I thought that her face was beautiful

Though it bore the lines of stress,

She said she wanted revenge on them,

I couldn’t have wanted less.

She said that she knew their routine, they

Would dine at the Globe Hotel,

Then go ahead and they’d book a room

At the neighbouring Motel,

I said I knew what we had to do

And we came up with a plan,

‘I think we’ll go and surprise them,

My wife and your husband Stan.’

We waited until they took their seats

At a table set for two,

Then wandered in and we said:

‘We’ll take this table, next to you.’

I’d never seen such spluttering, and

Each face turned beetroot red,

So then I kissed his wife, and turned

To Jane to say, ‘You’re dead!’

I’d only kissed her for effect

To see what Stan would do,

His face suffused with a jealous rage,

And Jane was jealous too,

It’s since that day we’ve made a match

Both I and Isabel,

Which goes to show that a fair exchange

Can sometimes turn out well.

David Lewis Paget

© 2017 David Lewis Paget

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Reviews

Tony Jordan

The husband is contained so well in these two lines
"She didn’t say that she’d let him play
With the things I thought were mine." - hapless - devoted - guillible - the perfect victim.
Then the worm turns.

Hey the cheaters got what they deserved though didnt they. Class David - class!