Keeping Up With The Browns

Do you recall me saying I had lost touch
with my ex neighbours, Mr & Mrs Brown?
Well, I have some news to share with you.
I have managed at last to track them down.

Her husband, the skunk, has done a bunk
without a shred of compassion or remorse.
The poor wife was left with no alternative
but to initiate the paperwork for divorce.

I met her one day while I was shopping;
she was deep in thought outside Waitrose
and when I asked: How are you Mrs Brown?
she said: Don’t be so formal, call me Rose.

She seemed quite philosophical of her plight
and said that she would soon be fancy free.
Then she paid me a backhanded compliment
by asserting that she could even fancy me.

She was obviously talking tongue in cheek
because she gave me a big smile and a wink.
I was glad that she was in such fine fettle
as her sad story had made my heart sink.

I had no news of her after that morning;
only intermittent gossip and some rumour,
until today, when I read in the local paper
that she had died of a malignant tumour.

© Luigi Pagano 2007