A Valentine's Raga
for three kindly women
Mrs. Foster Mrs. Ainsworth Mrs. Doris O'Neill
That frosty winter day one February
two months too early to see what Shelley saw
when one spring he sauntered there with William
Godwin's daughter Mary who
brought him there
to see the famous Camberwell Beauty soar
two hundred years too late for love like that
Donnelly
grandson
of Donnelly
strode in
to that selfsame park called
Myatt's Fields
along a tree lined path
towards a plinth
where he climbed on stage
loosed a lyric
of Dylan's
"when I was a windy boy and a bit
and the black spit of the chapel fold"
could even Richard Burton
say the lines better
grasses bent before the wind
delicate petals clung on
Donnelly heeded a gaunt oak tree
whose biggest bough waved a baton
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
was of Donnelly's stock
sparrows and blackbirds
began to flock
When I was but just a five year old and
bad
he said
imitating a low-voiced welsh actor's drawl
I
stole away an unclaimed box
of chocolates when the headmistress asked
if any of us sitting there on the hard
wooden floor if any of us owned
own up
she said with emphatic upper class diction
do any of you own this box of chocolates?
well of course I said I did
they are mine
as I stole away that box of chocolates
each one individually wrapped
in shiny golden paper so I owned up to
owning those chocolates
unwrapped them all
keeping the wrappers
ate them each one
so that
in the fullness of time
in the fullness of time
Donnelly said to the sparrow and
blackbirds
puffing his chest and strutting the stage
I was taken to the bathroom and soundly
strapped by Dad
You are far too softly spanking that brat
my mother said you're much too soft with him
I'll have you please go strap him again
I want you to strap him again and again
she said and old Mrs. Foster heard about it
because
because
why else was she so nice so kind
she brought me books
heavy tomes I carried home
from Primary School
one by one until I had a full set
an encyclopedia with pictures each page
When I was but just eight years old and
ill
Donnelly said drawing himself upright
from the land of unpleasant memories
I was seventeen weeks in hospital
he said with nephritis in the kidneys
Mrs. Ainsworth brought me schoolwork to do
something to look forward to inbetween pills
when I was not watching nurses
Donnelly said
I
was in love with a night nurse
a beautiful night nurse
I watched from my bed in the darkened ward
while she sat in front of the fireplace
reading
with a lamp on her desk lighting her face
her freckled face fringed by curly fair hair
until one night there was a commotion
in the chimney a pigeon appeared
bold as brass strutting around on the floor
in front of the fireplace
scaring us me and the nurse
but it was only a pigeon
so a porter came and opened a
window
and out it flew free as a bird
When I was still just nine year's old
and sad
my father died Donnelly
said he died
and no longer would I walk beside him
keeping to his left side where he watched me
with his one good eye not the glass eye
he wore in his right eye socket
from being blown up in the war
and before too long Donnelly said
to the birds where are the bees
and the butterflies?
my mother took a lover Mr. O'Neill
Bill would come to our front door
ring the bell
we would let him inside
he'd go to the lounge
where they would close the door on us kids
the curtains were closed where she waited
outside
Mrs. O'Neill who lived at No. 1 Calais Gate
she waited outside the windows where we lived
outside No. 9 to see where could she see them
through cracks in the curtains
carrying on inside
When I was but fifteen years old and
glad
Donnelly declaimed glad to be grown
playing a man
Mrs. O'Neil came to see me play Raleigh
in Journey’s End
my mother couldn’t spare the time she said
Donnelly said sadly to see me play young
Lieutenant Raleigh in the school play
where
in the very last scene
as the lights go
down
I died in the end
of that first world war play
So I want to say that I love you all three
Donnelly said
Mrs. Foster Mrs. Ainsworth
I love you both still I'll always
remember you
and also Doris that adulterer's
wife
Mrs. O'Neill who nurtured
me
came to see me play Raleigh where I died in the end
where I die at the end of the very last act
up on the stage of a deserted bandstand
a plinth in the park at Myatt's Fields
copyright © Dick Russell, 2014
