Laura and Ben, toddler friends
Born less than a year apart
Kindergarten playground buddies
Inseparable, right from the start
We watched as they became teenagers
Those two spoke as if one of their love and romance,
Wanting to take their relationship further,
Give their young adult dalliance a chance
Each family wished them well.
Their friends were overjoyed.
I was none too happy, not just displeased.
For crying out loud, I was bloody annoyed.
Their long-time friends and confidants
Were rooting for them, from a mutual corner.
Was it up to me to be the only one?
Who would take control and warn her?
Anticipating a Shakespearean tragedy enfolding
Similar to a Montague, Capulet slaughter
How could I soften this friendly fired salvo?
Knowing I’d hurt my wife, my son, and my daughter.
Long before our children were born,
Jan and Terry lived on Acacia Road, number ten.
We lived across the street at number nine,
We were the best of friends back then
Visiting each other's houses was commonplace
It was always good to arrange a Friday night meet
We partied, barbequed, and dined often together, until
We showed them pink booties for tiny feet
Jan and Terry resigned themselves to childlessness
Their joys of raising children lost through flawed genetic code
Their difficulties with conception were without doubt down to Terry
Burdened with lacklustre seed that sluggishly flowed
We curtailed our many visits to each other
Jan got upset seeing my ballooning wife
Who’s pregnancy was tough on us both
We lived without peace, just constant strife,
Jan and I had consoled each other more than once
More than mere friends, we foolishly cavorted.
Our liaison didn’t last as long as I’d hoped,
Jan called it off. Our love affair aborted.
Eventually, Jan announced she was pregnant
Husband Terry walked out, slamming the door
He knew, without doubt, she had been unfaithful
He couldn't live with or love her anymore.
Jan and I drifted far apart after that
We both knew that our affair had been wrong
We've hardly acknowledged each other since
I've never acknowledged Ben as my son.
Now Laura and Ben insisted on telling the world,
Of their engagement, one to each other.
These events were getting so out of hand
She was unaware that Ben was her stepbrother
Finally, we were all at their engagement party
Ashamed and trembling, I mounted the stage,
‘‘Stop!’’ ‘’This engagement breaks every rule,’’
‘‘Ben’s mother was my lover in our younger days’’
I told the dazed crowd how it came to be
Apologising to both Laura and my wife
Told them how I was Ben’s father too
You could cut the stunned silence with a knife
Jan pushed me aside as she mounted the stage
With a hurtfelt expression, she said a few words,
‘‘It’s true, we conceived Ben in my lover's bed’’
‘’But it wasn’t you; Ben's father is Ethan Hurds.’’
I thought then how I had lost it all
My loving wife and my daughter
I had told the world of my love affair
Now quickly drowning, not even treading water.
My tearful wife got up on the stage, bereft
Would she forgive me for the years of love we’d built?
That was the last thing on her mind.
Plunging a metaphorical dagger into my heart up to the hilt.
She stood on the stage and spoke directly to our Laura, announcing that the engagement was definitely through.
She said ‘’I conceived you Laura in a wild, passionate fling’’
‘’Your father is Ethan Hurds, who lives at number two.’’
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