The End of Dream

They had said that he was dying but

He might as well be home,

He was taking up an empty bed

At the hospital, in Rome,

And no amount of medicaments would

Bring him back to life,

So they threw him in an ambulance

And sent him to his wife.

And she, poor girl, was mystified

She didn’t need the stress,

Of tending to a cadaver while

She wore her party dress.

He saw the world through greying eyes

But he never made a sound,

He’d married her through thick and thin

But on thin, she’d let him down.

His days were grey and mist-like as

He looked around his room,

She’d kept the curtains pulled across

So he lay there in the gloom,

And shadows of her sister would

Stand pensive at his bed,

He’d loved, and he really missed her 

But the sister long was dead.

Perhaps he should have married Grace

As the younger of the two,

But that would have left the elder one

Not knowing what to do.

The eldest must be married first

Or so the father said,

So Raymond Royce was given no choice

He’d married Gwen instead.

It seemed as if he woke sometimes

And he went to greet the day,

Out in the broader sunshine where

His pains had gone away.

But Gwen was never there with him

As she’d never been in life,

While Grace had sat and talked with him

As if she were alive.

And when Grace reached and held his hand

He thought that his heart would burst,

The tears he shed from his lonely bed

Said he had loved her first.

He asked why Grace had died on him

And she gave him his reply,

‘My sister Gwen had put poison in

That gift of an apple pie.’

‘She knew I only had eyes for you,

And she thought that you would leave,

She saw the way that you looked at me

And her heart began to grieve.

It wasn’t as if she wanted you

But she knew that if you left,

The world would see it as scandal

And would leave her quite bereft.’

And so he lay there, day by day

While his wife brought boyfriends home,

They lay there in the adjoining room

In that little flat in Rome.

While he could not decide between

Reality and dream,

The grey days were his night, he thought

And the brighter days his cream.

He knew just where he would rather be

In the day-like days with Grace,

But Gwen would settle beside his bed

And would mutter to his face.

He saw her dimly through the mist

And repeat beneath her breath,

‘How long, how long will you resist

When the end for you is death?’

The day came that the sun was bright,

It was time that he was fed,

While Grace looked on as her sister sat

Beside her husband’s bed.

And Grace had whispered between her tears

‘Don’t you even wonder why…’

While her sister, with a face so grim

Sat and fed him apple pie.

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Pragati Chaudhary]

Your writing falls so into place.
Another masterpiece.

[TPK Stories]

What a sad tale of love lost....

[marilyn 1225]

extraordinarily well done fabulous poem but yes very dark, depressing and wrenching despite the dark humor in the last two lines...

[J. Hampton]

This sang along limerickly...despite its dark humor
well crafted from head to verse
I enjoyed this much more than I would usually enjoy
this type of verse.
really well done

[Tony Jordan]

Applecakes with poison - but what sweet relief for some.
I got a real sense of Victorian age sensibilities from this one David. 'Proper' must not only be done but must be seen to be done and to hell with people's feelings and their lives.
Another cracker DLP.

[Avinash]

Now we would look at the apple pie quite differently after reading this poem. I loved that the story did not give in to the popular notion of sweet revenge. That seldom happens in the real life. A perpetrator of crime always has an upper hand. Bottom line - never settle with the wrong one.

[Coyote Poetry]

Be careful of the apple pie. A interesting tale my friend. Greed and love. A deadly combination. Thank you David for sharing the amazing tale.
Coyote

[Barbz]

How un-Grace-ful for Gwen to treat this dying man so disrespectfully. It seemed very nightmarish but quite suspenseful.of course, your twist was very crusty. I loved it DLP...Well done, as usual. Barbz