Know-it-Poet: ‘Top of the World’

Top of the World

Heart torn asunder, life sentence down under:
Decades’ heartbreak, final identity plunder.
Silent assassin, dying first: final blunder.
What if? Emperor’s thumb, meaningless wonder.

Stiff-upper-lip, Master’s Voice well-placed;
Officer and accountant, career well-traced.

Dior, Cartier, Chanel well-laced;
Ascot, Wimbledon, social whirl aced.

Dover sole, Fortum & Mason’s hampers:
heaven forbid, champers, never campers.

Class, what farce: dapper and flappers, upper-middle,
middle-upper; filthy lucre, low-birth riddle.

Bailey’s Bristol Cream: After-Eight suppers,
Roasts, boasts and toasts, never on uppers.

To last breath: never the five-pound Pom.
Hillside palace forfeited; father wounded on Somme.
Numb and dumb, after husband’s dropped bomb.
Peacekeeper dove, without love: dignity grace and aplomb.

Forget-me-not: robins in bloom, bobbies in blue;
leaden skies, hardboard sandwiches the rue.

Lattice-leaf lanes, northern dialect rough hue:
Gobstoppers, Devonshire teas, stew and flue.

Under-table-knitting, silk stockings flaunted:
Churchill’s bunker, German-bombs haunted.

Ticket of leave denied: swim with the tide.
Keep son, pride and joy, by your side.
D-word: crowning-glory-rented; a rough ride.
Bide time: bitter-soul-concealed; smile and hide.

Ms Havisham’s haunted parlour, ardour spent.
Parmies, oaths, smokes, spiders, snakes’ ferment.
Billies, barbies, Billabongs: heart-raking dent.
Singlets, thongs, “she’ll be Jake”; tearless lakes dement.

Tormentor—holding hands, lovey-dovey—losing the plot.
Remorseless hound, death-bound; too late to change heart.
Affection torn; two-face wormed; safeguard funeral lot.
Elysian fields, wandering souls, down under never part.

Graveside splendour, sniffing breezes, kangaroos roaming.
Squirms and worms: Yorick’s skull to be tied and tethered.
Double-birth cabin—one up, one down—in the loaming.
One-upmanship, a class below, tarred-and-feathered.

Cold-on-the trolley, dictator wheeled out—without tears.
Final salute, life-sentence revoked—without fears.

Funeral blighted: no cake at friendless wake.
Hemlock and ashes, widow’s weeds slighted.
Too late grim reaper: marriage a hollow fake.
Spirit deflowered: another keeper frighted.

Exile’s return to lifeblood, mother-cradled shores?
Victory’s laurels: contentment, a thickening plot.
Too late brass-band welcome; too many sores.
Second-coming, well-lived: wedding vows rot.

Suzerain departed: twilight years blossomed, feted.
Nearly a centurion, Queen’s telegram fell short.
Free of guard dog’s chill; friends’ affection sated.
Eulogies, Tom fooleries: death’s battle fought.

Avenging furies chained: bottom-bunk’s bullish bellow.
Window-seat blighted: skunk-in-a-funk, contumely fellow.
Top-bunk sainted, room with a view: freedom’s drill.
Eternity’s last laugh: village-girl-on-top, what a thrill!

Know-it-Poet