BEASTLY TALES

TEA FOR TWO

Johnny liked Jenny, known each other since school.
Jenny was the smarter, Johnny a bit of a fool.
They not only went daily to school together,
Holding hands, in all sorts of weather.
But their respective parents lived side by side.
Next door neighbours right by the Clyde.
Yes, the Firth of Clyde, in the town of Ayr.
The Firth, an estuary, with wind in your hair.
Scotland’s weather, invigorating it is.
One’s skin really enjoys the tingle and fizz.
Brisk, it’s a word that does come to mind.
And where better, in such environment do we find.
Two such intertwined lives from the start.
Each dedicated to the other in affairs of the heart.

Johnny finished school, to work in a shipyard.
Folk thought him slow, perhaps a retard.
Ponderous he was but not entirely dumb.
He did the Sunday crossword, sucking this thumb.
Jenny, on the other hand, would never succumb.
To a relationship with one whose brain was numb.
“Numbskull” was a word she never would use.
Certainly not for her intended, not to excuse,
Any perceived lack of any intellect,
Such a divisional thought she couldn’t bisect.

Jenny, herself, got a job selling millinery,
She had to travel on the bus daily to Killenery,
But the pay was good, with a cheap fare,
And when she was at work, Johnny wasn’t there.
The bus commute gave her time to think.
Both she and Johnny had jobs, in the Pink.
“But are we compatible?” She did wonder.
“He’s not so bright, with many a blunder.”
“Could we, indeed, of it make a go?”
“Or would I grow jaded with the so and so.”
Questions such as these plagued her mind.
“We need to be in front, and not behind.”

At last came the day scheduled for the wedding.
Was the course they were on, on a good heading?
Johnny thought so, vigorously,
Saying as much, as he made a pig of his tea.
Jenny concluded she was not at all sure.
Johnny, not so young, had much less allure.
Jenny thought it best she tell him right now,
Doing so, she saw the sweat on his brow.
“How could you do this to me, on my wedding day too?”
Johnny now looked as if he was fit to spew.
“I’ve overlooked things for quite a while”
“Once you were smart and handsome, now you are vile.”
“This conclusion has come to me, with some regret.”
“That I have not met “Mr Perfect”, no not yet!”
“A sad fact is that, you, I have now jilted.”
“Even though, for a Scottish wedding you are kilted.”