DESIRE

  John wore tailored suits from Burtons He drove a car that reeked of sport, And in everything he got his way Dad’ said he was a bad sort.   The letters flapped the air in triumph And I was trapped within his stare, My bag was emptied of its contents And I exposed to be a liar.   He burnt the letters on a bonfire I stood aside to watch bemused, He purged and sifted through my personals To find the proof he’d been abused.   He punched a punter off his barstool At a Tavern out of town; The saloon buffoon had eyeballed me So he jumped up and knocked him down.   He threw the ring into the bushes Because his love was not returned We searched all night until we found it And on my finger so it burned.   The Virgin gazed at me in silence The priest declared the contract signed, The unborn lives were spoken for I thought it love, but youth is blind.   I was a fancy on his mantelpiece I was a feature not a wife But when I became a mother’ John left, to start another life.