The Long Wait (Poetry)
24th February 2019
All those long dark nights she waited
turned to weeks ... then months and years
more in hope than faith committed
to a desert dry of tears
Her sights set upon the rich man
(she’d have settled for the poor)
or the come-and-catch-me-quick man
to batter down her door
She hung out in her tower
like some maiden in a book
crossing off each lonesome hour
without a second look
She had dreamed a phantom lover
from a very early age
well-concealed from her mad mother
and her fits of jealous rage
He was handsome — truly dashing —
a seducer with a smile
that sent reservations crashing
but she found after a while
the fantasy was not enough
she needed flesh and blood
to say and do romantic stuff —
drown her in passion’s flood
But she got so bored with waiting
quite distracted by the moon
saw the frantic ritual mating
of young bodies paired too soon
like glad victims of the sacrifice
all too willingly they went
and blinded by a hail of rice
seemed averagely content
to spend their lives together —
Mr Normal and his spouse
living on the Never-Never
in their Lego starter-house
Then Mr Ordinary washed up
at a fairly desperate ebb
he offered her a lukewarm cup
and thus the two were wed
A sleight of mind — and there she was —
stuck in some dreary town
isolated — glum because
the sameness wore her down ...
Old friends left many miles behind
(if truly friends they were)
familiar faces of the kind
distance tends to blur
Relentless as the North wind’s bite
an aching chilled her through
frustrated by her self-made plight
she pleaded for rescue
The Fates seemed deaf. The seasons flew
despair ate at her heart
she did the one thing she could do —
made ready to depart
She journeyed weary and alone
back to her town of birth
with everything that she now owned
but found that patch of earth
distinctly changed. No welcome mat
no balloons or loving hug
her return an anticlimax that
friends greeted with a shrug
She licked her wounds and healed her grief
with luck still running late
unshaken in that one belief —
love comes to those who wait
turned to weeks ... then months and years
more in hope than faith committed
to a desert dry of tears
Her sights set upon the rich man
(she’d have settled for the poor)
or the come-and-catch-me-quick man
to batter down her door
She hung out in her tower
like some maiden in a book
crossing off each lonesome hour
without a second look
She had dreamed a phantom lover
from a very early age
well-concealed from her mad mother
and her fits of jealous rage
He was handsome — truly dashing —
a seducer with a smile
that sent reservations crashing
but she found after a while
the fantasy was not enough
she needed flesh and blood
to say and do romantic stuff —
drown her in passion’s flood
But she got so bored with waiting
quite distracted by the moon
saw the frantic ritual mating
of young bodies paired too soon
like glad victims of the sacrifice
all too willingly they went
and blinded by a hail of rice
seemed averagely content
to spend their lives together —
Mr Normal and his spouse
living on the Never-Never
in their Lego starter-house
Then Mr Ordinary washed up
at a fairly desperate ebb
he offered her a lukewarm cup
and thus the two were wed
A sleight of mind — and there she was —
stuck in some dreary town
isolated — glum because
the sameness wore her down ...
Old friends left many miles behind
(if truly friends they were)
familiar faces of the kind
distance tends to blur
Relentless as the North wind’s bite
an aching chilled her through
frustrated by her self-made plight
she pleaded for rescue
The Fates seemed deaf. The seasons flew
despair ate at her heart
she did the one thing she could do —
made ready to depart
She journeyed weary and alone
back to her town of birth
with everything that she now owned
but found that patch of earth
distinctly changed. No welcome mat
no balloons or loving hug
her return an anticlimax that
friends greeted with a shrug
She licked her wounds and healed her grief
with luck still running late
unshaken in that one belief —
love comes to those who wait