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The Glimmer

I’m at the event and she’s on the way.
It’s a year now since last time we met.
The music is good, the company grand.
A better chance I’ll never get.

I must choose one day,
Must plump for The One,
Must pick the girl I desire,
But it’s party time now.
Don’t go over the top.
She’s only one iron in the fire.

She enters the room.
She beams, she’s in bloom.
Can a smile be more wide than its face?
I stride over to greet her,
My arms thrown out wide,
But of hesitance I see a trace.

“I’m eight months pregnant,” she informs me.
I keep my control.
I know that rash acts can be bad.
I’m politeness incarnate,
Recite the conventions,
But am I now happy or sad?

I launch an inquiry,
Must know in what order the feelings arrived one-by-one.
Was the first to appear the chief of them all,
Or was it just jumping the gun?

The brain is just a chemical plant – some hormones take longer than others.
The best of them might arrive late,
But I’m marvelling now that I don’t feel much more.
Did they all get jammed up in the gate?

It would be rude to imply that that I just didn’t care.
She’d want me to cry for a time.
But I love her enough,
I know,
I’m aware,
That her happiness feeds into mine.

Tradition demands that I now feel the bump.
It is firm, it is large, it is life.
And at such a party it is natural to dance,
So I ask her, though she’s not my wife.

The music is mellow.
We both know the drill.
We connect on the floor as of old.
We chat as we step.
She laughs when I quip.
We are warm, but I’m feeling cold.

And then I let my mind work a trick,
Fool myself that this child is mine,
That this wonderful woman carries for me,
That I’ve plumped, and everything’s fine.

The up-swell of feeling,
The on-rush of joy,
Cause panic, and I quell the surge.
It’s only a mind-trick,
It’s nothing,
It’s over.
Move along now, ignore the urge.

She was only a glimmer.
I saw her too seldom to hold out rational hope.
I know there are plenty of fish in the sea.
Don’t worry, I know I can cope.

Next, I meet “David”, the cause of the bulge.
Of course he’s a nice enough chap.
And I give him a hearty congratulation,
And add my best manly slap.

She was only a glimmer,
One gleam on dark waves,
A manifestation of hope.
I blinked twice, and then she was gone.
Down-hearted? That would make me a dope.

I’ll be off now, David, so good to meet you.
You treat her well now, you hear?
But don’t let that baby take over your life.
Oh! What stories we’ll all swap next year.


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