Following Jane

He’d stared at the silver screen so long

He thought he was going blind,

For a fortnight after his wife had gone

He thought he would lose his mind.

She’d snatched her purse from the window ledge

And said that she’d not be late,

‘I’ll just call in to the grocery store,

Then call on my sister, Kate!’

 

An hour went by and he scratched his head

While watching the cricket score,

Then two, and three put the sun to bed,

He went and stood by the door,

The Moon rose up at eleven or so,

It shone on an empty street,

And Kate replied to his mobile call,

‘I’ve not seen Jane for a week!’

 

There wasn’t a lot he could say to that

For Kate would have played it straight,

She wouldn’t lie for her sister Jane,

She had enough on her plate.

A drunken husband, threatening her

Each time that he laid one on,

And Kate had whispered to Jane, ‘I wish,

He’d pack up his things, be gone!’

 

Sam went to report to the police next day,

One lost, or wandered or strayed,

(The cop had smirked to his mate out back,

‘Perhaps she went to get laid?’)

‘It’s not like her, she’s a homely type,

But something has gone amiss,

She left three bags at the grocery store

And she’s not done that, ‘til this.’

 

Once back at home on the Internet

He checked on her Facebook page,

Her smiling face looked back at him yet,

Making him more dismayed,

A man had posted a Timeline rant,

Had posted the previous day:

‘I love you Jane, and I’m deep in pain,

I’m coming to take you away.’

 

The face of the man was indistinct

Was hidden in deepest gloom,

He must have taken the photograph

At night, in a dim-lit room,

The name that he used was ‘Love-Will-Out’

But surely that couldn’t be,

For Jane, he thought, was a simple soul,

‘She wouldn’t be false to me!’

 

He caught a glimpse of her now and then

As he wandered, page to page,

She’d left a trail as she trawled back when

And he felt a gathering rage.

A ‘like’ on a friend she used to have,

A comment that made no sense,

‘I need a map’ was the one remark

That had kept him in suspense.

 

‘I don’t know where,’ she’d written up there,

Elsewhere, ‘or where I am.’

‘Somebody’s following close behind

But I keep looking for Sam.’

Snatches of words that made no sense

He would see as they flashed on by,

And through the runnels of Facebook tunnels

He’d see that same grim guy.

 

So still he stares at the silver screen

Though he thinks he’s going mad,

She seems to be there on the Facebook scene,

(In a way, that makes him glad).

But he’ll never rest ‘til she comes back home

To end that feeling of pain,

Whenever I ask if he’s coming out,

He says, ‘I’m following Jane!’

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[R Smith]

very good David, makes a change to see someone bring the dreaded facebook into the land of poetry, its got a lot to answer for and the thought of following his wife through her timeline is sadly hilarious, another great tale from your eternally entertaining pen/keyboard :)

[Thomas Fitzgerald]

The two sides of new poetry, a well placed piece that reads perfectly.

[TL Boehm]

Oh my. Love the way you brought the current into this poem - an all too familiar bit of reality - things like this do happen.

[Marie]

Sometimes I feel the world would be a better place without Facebook... though I follow it myself.

THe Internet helps us to know people in a way we never though to before (Jane was such a simple soul...) and perhaps shouldn't...

[MomzillaNC]

Another gripping tale… but leaving us bereft, wondering if this is a tale of betrayal or one of tragedy.