SHE PREFERRED NOT TO…………

(A Villanelle)

She preferred not to go out on a night like this
With ‘Strictly’ on. My God, what a show!
But, if she didn’t, what would she miss?

She knew precisely – a prickly kiss,
A few gin and tonics. Quite tempting, although
She preferred not to go out on a night like this.

And then, of course, he’d reminisce
“Let’s rekindle the flame of long ago.”
But, if she didn’t, what would she miss?

Maybe twenty minutes of bedded bliss
Was it worth the effort? The answer was “No!”
She preferred not to go out on a night like this.

His indiscretions she’d learned to dismiss
She switched on ‘Strictly’. She wouldn’t go
But, if she didn’t, what would she miss?

She always forgave his avarice
But his scorn for ‘Strictly’? Never! And so
She preferred not to go out on a night like this
But, if she didn’t, what would she miss?

Yvonne Warwick