His wife got bored and left, so he supposed.
He saw her from the bedroom window seat,
His vantage point on local happenings,
Rattling a suitcase up the cobbled hill.
She hadn’t said goodbye or anything.
The postman came and went,
The binmen failed to come
Or would at least be late,
Due to Bank Holiday.
He wanted lunch, but it was only twelve.
Best wait till one and then have bread and cheese,
Or bread and marmalade, or why not both?
His favourites, and not much washing up.
Meanwhile, a chocolate biscuit would suffice.
The Lidl man appeared,
To put his weekly ad
Through every letterbox,
Looking fanatical.
Someone was getting a delivery,
The driver searching up and down the row
Of cottages, completely mystified.
A jogger heaved herself up the incline
Perhaps expecting to reduce her ample bum.
A dog across the street
Jumped up above the hedge
And terrified a mum
With five small kids in tow.
At one o’clock he sorted out his lunch,
And ate it standing at the kitchen sink –
Straight off the breadboard, no call for a plate,
No need to lay and clear the table then –
Or, as it crossed his mind, ever again.
Refer to: Apr 2020 – Sermons in stones
I found notes for this in the drawer of my bedside table – must have jotted it down in the night, months ago. Nevertheless it could possibly be interpreted as related somehow to lockdown, so here you are.
The unbearable sadness is conveyed partly in the matter-of-fact tone and third party perspective. The lack of rhyme (apart from last couplet) adds to sense of disorder and loss.
Yes, there was no rhyme scheme but I like it that a few rhymes ‘just happened’, including happenings/anything, bum/mum, row/tow.