Havisham
The lady never forgot
Just imagine...
You are an 80-year old lady. When you were young you were deeply in love with a man and were going to marry. You were rich. On the morning of your wedding – just as you are about to leave the house – you receive a message from your fiancé saying he doesn’t to marry you and has run away with your money. This is all he wanted – he didn’t love you at all.
The poem - by Carol Ann Duffy
Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since thenI haven't wished him dead. Prayed for itso hard I've dark green pebbles for eyes,ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with.Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole daysin bed cawing Nooooo at the wall; the dressyellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe;the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, who did this to me? Puce curses that are sounds not words.Some nights better, the lost body over me,my fluent tongue in its mouth in its earthen down till suddenly I bite awake. Love's hate behind a white veil; a red balloon burstingin my face. Bang. I stabbed at a wedding cake.Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon.Don't think it's only the heart that b-b-b-breaks.