Rosemarie Rowley (1942-)
No Tea Party
1The lid is rising on the kettle's song,
2Likewise my energy wastes itself in air,
3Don't call me when the tea's made, I'll be gone.
4I left my true self with your vulgar throng
5Now drawn and quartered, they arraign me with stare,
6The lid is rising on the kettle's song.
7To have believed in you, and not in long
8Speeches of your drab affair—
9Don't call me when the tea's made, I'll be gone.
10No one pushed me, but I see that I was wrong,
11I've said it all, but I won't bow, so there!
12The lid is rising on the kettle's song.
13I should have known it, and the bells can bong
14Each Sunday of the year without our heir,
15Don't call me for the christening, I'll be gone
16I did without a wedding, honeymoon, even the pong
17Of babies, so there's no joy for us to share—
18The lid is hopping on the kettle's song—
19Don't call me. When the tea's made, I'll be gone.
Notes
16] pong: stink.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Copyright © Rosemarie Rowley 2007. Not to be republished without permission of the poet.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: Rosemarie Rowley, In Memory of Her
(Dublin: Rowan Tree Press, 2004): 13.
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2007
Recent editing: 1:2007/3/20
Form: villanelle
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