Audrey
 

Dear sweet Audrey, official darling of St John

The Evangelist. Flower arranger, doer of good

Deeds and thoroughly good egg. A woman too

Many rely on and of whom too many including

The vicar expect too much. Always there in a

Crisis, always willing to help, a true pillar of

The community

An old fashioned girl in so many wonderful

Ways. Loves her pinnies and pince-nez. Cute

Little spectacles that brings a certain air to her

Countenance mixing reverence and devilment

With the same eyebrow pencil. A girl of two

Halves, her dress tipping a wink at the 1940s

Her modern heart conscious of a need to bear

Witness in an increasingly secular world

A BBC Home Service/Light programme sort of

Girl. A starlet from war-torn Britain reborn. Got

A stack of old records and a wind-up gramophone

A girl from another time right down to her fully

Fashioned nylons, cotton mill turban and polka

Dot pinny

Such a sweet creature, such a beautiful friend

We've been stepping out these last few weeks

Her husband fell ill three years ago last month

And it’s been over a year now since his passing

I finally got the courage up to asked her out and

She accepted. Gentlest hand I ever held, a little

Lost perhaps but underneath hopeful and full

Of love. I like to think we’re getting closer and

Next Sunday is our biggest day yet, she’s doing

A roast and she asked if I’d like to help in the

Kitchen?

I never knew the 1940s could be so good, so soft

So sweet. War aside, street clothes, underclothes

All of the softest sometimes almost invisible

fabrics. I can see why her love of the era, it’s like

Love itself all embracing, enveloping, sensually

Sensational. A part of life itself like a kiss, one

Thing leading to another and from there to a

Tempting continuity of gently yielding curves

Later, in the garden, with Audrey in my arms

I found every reason for hope when she hinted

I reminded her of Errol Flynn...
 

© Joseph G Dawson
28/02/2018 – 29/03/2016