The Breakdown Poem by David Lewis Paget

‘I don’t remember a year like this, ’
She stood by the window pane,
Staring into the murk and mist,
‘All that it does is rain!
It’s barely stopped for a month or more
And the garden’s all a-flood,
The line is down and the washing’s drowned
And the yard is thick with mud.’

I’d just come down from the nearest town
On the other side of the hill,
‘Strange, it hasn’t been raining there
And the sun is shining still.
The mist is clear, just a mile away
And the hedgerow’s full of life,
I came to see if you’d heard or seen
A glimpse of my darling wife?

She looked confused for a moment there
Then she shook her head, real slow,
‘I don’t recall if I’ve even seen her
Since she got up to go,
She said she needed to find herself
The girl that she used to be,
Before she married and settled down,
Well, that’s what she said to me.’

‘You don’t think she’s had a change of heart,
A tiny hint of regret?
I thought by now she’d have worked it out,
And wouldn’t be so upset.’
‘I doubt if she will be coming back,
She said it wouldn’t be soon, ’
I turned away and my face was grey
On that rainy afternoon.

She stood up close to the window-sill
And all she could see was rain,
Despite the fact that the sun shone still
And the skies were clear again,
The nurse came in and she said, ‘It’s time,
We must get your wife to bed.’
And I drove over the hill in pain
Just wishing that I was dead!

27 March 2015