A Night to Forget
‘River, stay away from my door’ – 1930’s American song(For Margaret Collis)
A cottage fit for a Dream of England –For thirty five years Margaret livedAnd had her fun and sorrow deep in Kent.Safe and secure, she thought, amongst hillsAnd fields, a gentle land dozing through time;Safe from so many ills buried in the past;Safe from rough fortune and famine.But nature is no mother partial toHer brood, no friend even who listensTo our prayers like the church-goer’s God.
So the night was upon her when the earthCould accept no more relentless rain -The road from the hill became a river.As a pagan raider devoid of pityAnd the human rules of right and wrong,It smashed its way through her door andDefiled the things which helped sustain her life.Awash with filth and excrementThe cottage was no longer a home, butA place of despair and mud-soaked loss.
Job suffered far more, but at least he hadGod to call upon and ask: why me Lord?Perhaps only a woman could rallyAnd say that this worst is not the worst.When she rang me and my wife, she wasSorry we would have to cancel our visit -Frailty, thy name has never been woman.