March 29, 2023

 

 

She watches every movement

of my hand.

Always alert.

Always in command.

 

I try to assure her

that my intentions are true.

But she has scars from her past –

a past I never knew.

 

It is going to take time,

but I’m up for the task.

though some days it feels like

an impossible ask.

 

Just when I think we are

moving on a bit,

quite out of the nowhere

appears another hissy fit.

 

Perhaps it’s something horrific,

lodged in her brain,

that returns in a cycle,

again and again.

 

When the moment is over

she comes and paws my hand.

I keep it quite still,

unsure of what she has planned.

 

She knows when she’s hurt me,

and is so full of sorrow.

I think she could like me,

if more time we could borrow.

 

So I avoided eye contact,

by keeping out of her way.

Fingers crossed this new tactic

is beginning to pay.

 

She has started me-owing

to let me know she is near.

She is watching me intensely.

I pretend not to hear.

 

She twists herself through my legs,

preventing my stride.

almost tripping me up,

to be ignored – she can’t abide.

 

She’s now been fed and watered,

and due her next five hour nap.

I don’t think in her lifetime,

she will ever jump on my lap.

 

But she is coming round slowly,

with a more confident view.

And now seems ready to move on,

from the heartache, she once knew.

 

 

March 25, 2023

 

 

And Marcia said to Rex

that she knew that it was him.

Though he flatly denied it,

saying that it was Tim.

 

But it couldn’t have been Tim,

because she knew he was elsewhere.

He’d set off from Central Park,

and finished up in Times Square.

 

‘A dollar for your thoughts’, she said.

No answer could he give.

He knew which side his bagel was buttered,

and just wanted, now to live.

 

‘The truth will out, you know’, she said.

‘It’s just a matter of time’.

‘This just ain’t adding up at all,

your words are five cents to the dime’.

 

He raised his eyebrow thoughtfully,

and simply pursed his lips.

Then gave a smile that never works,

when her hands are on her hips.

 

‘You know you’re in a corner’.

‘There is no wriggle room’.

‘Just simply let the facts be known’, she said.

‘What good’s a horse without a groom?’

 

‘A horse without a groom?, he says.

‘Have you lost your mind?’

‘Oh neigh lad, that, I haven’t done’.

‘All my grey cells intact, you’ll find.’

 

‘It isn’t me who’s stupid,

you should have covered your tracks’.

‘Many a whistle blower,

a bit of integrity, lacks’.

 

‘And no good can come of tickle-tackle,

when a sniffer dog’s on the prowl’.

‘So raise your game and show your cards’,

to prevent one holy howl’.

 

‘You’re barking up the wrong tree’ he says,

‘You’re just prancing in the dark’.

‘Tim wasn’t even in New York,

let alone, out walking in Central Park’.

 

‘And something else that you should know,

a nightingale may have sung in Berkeley Square,

but this may come as no surprise,

Tim also wasn’t even there!’

 

‘You haven’t a clue what you’re talking about,

and I’m standing by what I said’.

‘And your attempt to catch me out,

just proves you are off your head’.

 

‘Just think about this sensibly’,

he says, while on a winning roll.

‘Let’s clear the air of all this stuff,

and go out for a stroll’.

 

‘A stroll’ she says – ‘a stroll indeed!

‘We can’t just let this drop’.

‘We must get to the bottom of this,

or else you’re for the chop’.

 

‘The Chop, you say, the chop indeed!

You know I don’t eat meat’.

‘Just show me proof of what you say,

or else admit defeat’.

 

‘And if you know the whereabouts

of Tim so very well,

please do give him my regards,

when next you cast your spell’.

 

‘But as for me, I’m innocent

of everything you say.

Roy Rogers long since galloped off,

into the sunlight’s ray’.

 

And all the spaghetti westerns

that featured Lee Van Cleef,

are still as good as they ever were,

well, that is my belief’.

 

‘But moonlight shadows linger,

and play tricks with the past.

And my attempt at changing the subject,

on deaf ears, have landed – blast’.

 

‘So if you still think, that it was me,

then suit yourself, let’s just move on’.

I once nearly saved you my last Rolo,

but then in one gulp, it was gone.’