Twin Paths

The day had been rather stormy when

I walked in the garden gate,

With lighting flashing around me,

It was dark, and getting late.

I tried the key in the old front door

But found that it didn’t fit,

And had to pound on the knocker so

That Kate would answer it.

It took a minute or so before

I heard her steps on the floor,

She probably wondered who it was

Before she opened the door,

She stared at me with the strangest look

On her face that I’d ever seen,

But stood there blocking the door, I said,

‘Aren’t you going to let me in?’

She stood aside in a moment then

And I walked in through the door,

She said, ‘And what’s the occasion then?

You’ve not called here before.’

I thought she must have been joking then

And gave her a sickly smile,

She said, ‘you’d better believe it, you

Have not been here for a while.’

I tried to give her a kiss, but she

Pulled back, and turned away,

‘The time for that was an age ago,

That was another day.’

I asked her what she had meant, for she

Had been my wife for years,

‘Not since you married my sister, and

You turned my world to tears.’

I said that I didn’t follow her,

And must have looked confused,

She said that I’d turned my back on her

And left her feeling used,

‘You broke off from our engagement, when

The date had just been set,

And went and married my sister then,

You’re married to Jeanette.’

I thought I was going crazy, though

Perhaps, I thought, it’s Kate,

Having a mid-life crisis, but she

Looked at me with hate.

She said to go to her sister’s place

Just further down the street,

So thinking that I would humour her

I went, through hail and sleet.

I tried my key in Jeanette’s front door

And that gave me a shock,

The key had fitted it perfectly

As then the door unlocked,

I wandered into the kitchen where

Jeanette was making tea

For a man at the kitchen table,

But I swear the man was me!

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[David Lewis Paget]

The responses to my poems these days have been so poor that I will no longer send out RR's. Those that enjoy my work, and wish to write reviews will find it.