Rank Poison

It started off with disturbing dreams,

I tossed and turned in the night,

Waking with half-remembered scenes

But nothing that felt quite right,

My wife got irritable by and by

And slept in another room,

‘You wake me with all your thrashing about,

I need my sleep to bloom.’

 

We’d only been married a month or so

The second time round for both,

I was divorced, but her husband died

A year after taking the oath,

Our eyes had met in a party gloom

All singles, looking for love,

And when we kissed in that darkened room

It was lightning, from above.

 

It was all too rushed, I can see that now,

We didn’t give us a chance,

No time to see if our friendship grew,

We led each other a dance,

I bought a ring in the seventh week

We married the following day,

She often said as the months wore on

We shouldn’t have done it that way.

 

I asked her about her husband once

But she snapped, shut up like a clam,

She said that he died of a heart attack

But he wasn’t much of a man.

She said she didn’t like talking, that

It brought back too many tears,

But some of the scenes I dreamt about

Have stayed with me now, for years.

 

I noticed she started watching me

When I sat collating my stamps,

She did it so surreptitiously,

Then I started with stomach cramps.

I said, ‘Melissa, I don’t feel well

Are you sure that the fish was fresh?’

She said, ‘Well I ate the same fish too,

Does it look as if I’m distressed?’

 

My wife was there in the dreams I had

But the man there wasn’t me,

The eyes I used had belonged to Brad

And I wondered, who was he?

Melissa glared at the man I was

As she poured the table wine,

She wasn’t the woman I’d married then,

But one from a former time.

 

I raised the glass and was going to drink

When he knocked it out of my hand,

It spilled all over the tablecloth

And Melissa rose, to stand.

She stormed off back to the kitchen and

That’s when the dream would end,

I seemed to remember a voice that said:

‘Be careful now, my friend!’

 

The cramps came back and they got much worse

So I went to have some tests,

‘Probably just some gastro,’ said

The Doc, ‘Well that’s my guess!’

The third time that I ventured to go

He cut a lock from my hair,

‘Whatever it is, we’ll find it now

If there’s really anything there.’

 

Melissa cooked us a roast that night

And set out some Chardonnay,

She was more into an amber wine

And opened some old Tokay,

The voice rang loud in my head once more,

‘Beware of the grapes of wrath!’

I tipped my wine on a native plant

And said that I’d had enough.

 

I thought of the Life Insurance that

Melissa insisted we take,

A couple of hundred thousand each

And the thought had made me quake.

I knew now how she had poisoned him,

Her husband, known as ‘Brad’,

The arsenic out in the potting shed

That I hadn’t known we had.

 

She died while having convulsions when

Sipping a coke and ice,

I sat and watched through the TV ads,

I know that it wasn’t nice,

But the Doctor said that the arsenic

He found in my lock of hair,

Pointed the finger, straight at her,

And said I was lucky there.

 

She must have made a mistake with it,

He said, and loaded the Coke,

Though I never drink the stuff myself

I’d not disabuse the bloke.

I’m off to the Riviera when

The insurance money’s through,

And Melissa, well, they’re hushing it up,

And Brad - he’s coming too!

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Peter H]

MR.PAGET , i have nothing but respect and admiration for the way you write, i know i've said this before but if i had 1/3 of your talent I'd be happy , the fact that your name is'nt among the great poets of this generation is bewildering :) .

nothing but applause :)

[TL Boehm]

Well imagine that! She got her reward now didn't she. Poetic Justice served with a side of delicious rhyme.

[Valentine]

You stinker..you had me going with this gem..can't trust a woman once scorned..guss we have to wake up if he gets insurance policies on us..Kathie

[Clayton Bardwell]

Life insurance: you're either dead or the prime suspect.

[Sir Joseph]

The ending = mind blown!! Awesome write yet again! I love the way you write! I am almost ashamed to put up another piece myself haha! please continue writing such amazing pieces!

[TPK Stories]

Wow! Such a powerful ending! :-)

[Becky C Strukamp]

Wow once again, you weaved so cleverly a little story line that that I begged to know the end. Perhaps I'll be careful these days of wine delivered by friends.

You could very well write a full length feature movie of the week. As always lovely to read your work!!

[Tate Morgan]

Beware of the grapes of wrath!’ Buyer beware lol oh yeah this is why when there is a poisoning people say it is a woman Men tend to kill then think women always think first act second

[quinfinn]

shades of jane toppin....whew! yep, women are poisoners when they want to do that dirty deed..it is so tidy and theres no blood to clean up. i was poisoned by arsenic once, at a party years ago...apparently the punchbowl had been laced and nine of the partygoers went to the emergency room......i died twice and was brought about by modern medicine after a three week coma...i have had neuropathy ever since and one of those partygoers is still in a coma (since 1996) this write took me back there, arsenic is terrible stuff and i am lucky to be alive.....excellent write, dear david.

[Marie]

I don't understand how Brad could come too...did I miss something?