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Bernarda Alba.
I accept all. I include all.
At the birthday party I am planning no one will be excluded.
Billy Elliot, the musical and lithe-bodied youth,
Will sit side by side with long-faced Tristan
& Yseult will share secrets with Hedda Gabler.
Nor will they be gloomy, for life is to be celebrated.
I celebrate with the astronaut as with the corner-loafer;
For whose life is it anyway? Ours! To live and celebrate
(I have said this before) from Manhattan to Merthyr Tydfil.
National anthems shall be forgotten. Together we will sing a World Anthem.
Gerard Benson
‘What a glorious evening!’ the woman in white
Remarked as we stood there on Saturday night.
‘Fever throbs in my breast for some verdurous scene,
And I feel we’re blood brothers — or sisters, I mean.
Let us stroll in the forest, to go where the far
Pavilions of pretty rusticity are.’
‘Mamma mia!’ I answered. ‘What can you intend?
I don’t think our temperaments ever would blend.
Your elfin, blithe spirit is quite unlike mine,
And though countryside walks in the moonlight are fine,
I am all for the big life : suppose we go down
For an orgy of alcohol out on the town?’
‘Whose life is it anyway?’ brusquely replied
The glamorous girl, who now sprang from my side.
‘To a chap with romance in his heart I shall flee,
A more sensitive someone who’ll watch over me!’
Godfrey Bullard
The woman in white by the guillotine
Watches it fall, and turns quite green.
‘Les misérables!’ she sighs. ‘Mon Dieu!
Why do that to a king and queen?’
But the woman in black, as each head rolls,
Growls, ‘I agree with the guys and dolls.
He was the dresser; she was a shrew;
Their heads are good for a game of bowls.’
The white one says, ‘She was somebody’s Mum;
He was the Lion King. Now come,
Stop looking like Hecuba sniffing glue!
Why are some girls bad and dumb?’
But the dark one mutters, ‘A load of hooey!
It’s only a matter of losing Louis.’
Paul Griffin
On the town hall steps, the woman in white
Smiles for a photo to go on the dresser.
People sense her blithe spirit and share her delight;
They mirror her smile and murmur, ‘God bless her!’
Next to the woman, in black rented suit
(Its style more Chicago than Purley, in truth),
The bridegroom, all awkward, stands ready to scoot,
With a look in his eyes that says goodbye to youth.
He’s followed the cheese to the mousetrap and — snap! —
Here he is caught in a moment of fame.
A bystander watching, mutters, ‘Cheer up, old chap —
It comes to us all and we all feel the same.’
W.J. Webster
Oh yes, I remember the birthday party
And meeting the woman in white,
The dresser extraordinaire, stylish and arty,
Out on the town for the night.
And oh, mamma mia! Her smile was so sweet
That I felt like the lion king,
Not guessing such smiles could harbour deceit
Or carry so cruel a sting,
The producers of sorrow come promising joy
And posing as every man’s dream,
But dreams can turn sour so beware, man and boy,
Some women are not what they seem!
My faithless blithe spirit brought nothing but tears,
She took, but she gave little back,
I was caught in the mousetrap by one who appears
To me now as the woman in black!
Alan Millard
The cosmonaut’s last message was from hell:
‘The mousetrap’s full, the rat pack’s breeding fast.
I stomp them, but can’t stop them. There’s a smell
Of rotting rodents here. I’ll never last
To land on earth, visit my favourite bars
And meet some girls. I face eternity
Watching the sun dance, viewing the brilliant stars,
Devoid of someone who’ll watch over me.’
The vermin-riddled craft meant hope was zero,
And yet the doomed man never lost his pride.
The whole world felt blood brothers to this hero
And played their national anthems as he died.
Basil Ransome-Davies
No. 2393: Maths lesson
3.14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83279 50288 41971 69399 37510 58209 74944 59230 78164 06286 20899 86280 34825 34211 70679
These numbers are the value of ? up to a certain point (they extend to infinity). You are invited to supply a piece of prose in which each word has the number of letters corresponding to the above figures. Zero is to be represented by a ten-letter word. Please check your entries carefully. Entries to ‘Competition No. 2393’ by 19 May.
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