The parting of the ways
by cricketjeff on February 3, 2009. © Jeff Green, All rights reserved
After all the things he told her, after all the love she gave,
She could not believe their friendship was beyond his wit to save.
After all the spiteful treatment, after every sharp attack.
She could not forgive his actions and she had to answer back.
After she had had her measure would he dare to show his face
For the price of her displeasure would be ultimate disgrace.
It’s a fool pays no attention at the parting of the ways
And he had no comprehension of his cruel unfeeling gaze.
He was heedless of her hurting, did not know what he had spawned
Or he would have paid attention to the woman he had scorned.
When a love is turned to hating you should fear what will ensue,
So take care of all your lovers so the worst won’t come to you.
One by one his friends went absent, stopped returning mobile calls,
Started hearing breathless whispers like the sounds of waterfalls.
Then his clients found him wanting and accounts began to move
But he never found the reasons there was no-one to reprove.
Fewer women seemed to greet him in the pub or in the street;
After months of slow desertion his conversion was complete.
There’s a doorway at the co-op where he shelters from the rain
And a ticket for the doss house is the best he can obtain.
Though he tries to find the answers to the paths his life has led,
He cannot recall her promise as he tipped her out of bed.
“I was yours for all my lifetime and I thought you were for me
But it seems that you knew better, we shall see love, we shall see …”
Author notes
“Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman
scorned,” William Congreve.
English