No Tea Party
No Tea Party
Original Text
Rosemarie Rowley, In Memory of Her
(Dublin: Rowan Tree Press, 2004): 13.
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
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. Back to Line
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2007
Form
Special Copyright
Copyright © Rosemarie Rowley 2007. Not to be republished without permission of the poet.