Strange Encounter Poem by David Lewis Paget

He was sat in a quaint old country pub
And huddled over the fire,
The logs were blazing, spreading their heat
But the look on his face was dire.
There was only us on that winter's night
The regulars stayed away,
So I sat beside him to share the heat
And hear what he had to say.

The rain outside, pit-pattering down
Had flooded under the porch,
It was so pitch black in the night outside
That to leave, I'd need a torch.
So I settled in for a lengthy stay,
He said that his name was Jim,
The air of gloom in that empty room
Seemed to be coming from him.

I said, ‘What's up? ' and he looked at me
As if he was going to cry,
I said, ‘It can't be as bad as that, '
But he let out an awful sigh.
‘It's worse, far worse than you'd ever think, '
There followed a drawn-out pause,
But then he thought to confide in me,
‘I'm going to get a divorce.'

‘I see, ' I said, and I let him talk,
He needed to get it out,
A man in pain, while the driving rain
Outside, meant he had to shout.
‘I loved Elaine, and I never strayed,
Not once did I look aside,
For years Elaine was my universe
But now, it's a question of pride.'

‘She told me she had a sister, who
Had needed a place to stay,
A Rosalyn, and she moved right in,
I thought she would go away.
But no, she stayed, and the sisters played
And I worked while they went to shop,
She came in between the two of us,
So I said that it had to stop.'

‘I didn't think she would take her part
But she did, and pushed me away,
And that was the first of the arguments
We'd had, since our wedding day.
She'd throw a fit and would put me down,
It was messing with my head,
And then she would turn and leave the room,
And sleep in her sister's bed.'

‘For months, I tried to ignore it, but
It gradually got me down,
She said I wasn't much fun these days,
That all that I did was frown,
So just last night in a fit of spite
I thought that I'd take a stand…
I burst on in through their bedroom door,
Her Rosalyn was a man! '

12 June 2014