She wore the pink bow
which would grace her trousseau
as her new beau would row
down the river, so peaceful,
so lovely and slow.
But when he saw how
she was watching me now
as I gazed from a bough,
I decided I’d better
bow out of that row.
Ken Gosse usually writes short, rhymed, light poetry but sometimes departs from that. First published in First Literary Review–East in November 2016, later in The Offbeat, Pure Slush and others. Raised in the Chicago suburbs, now retired, he and his wife have lived in Mesa, AZ, over twenty years.
Very clever!
Love this!
My background notes reminded me that although this was written as a play on the English language, it was also in response to an image from a Guy De Maupassant short story—but I’m not sure which story and I can’t find the image online. I suspect it is only in my head. The story may have been “Yvette,” for which the painting “A Walk by the River” by Pierre Andre Brouillet has been used as a book cover: https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/1/a-walk-by-the-river-pierre-andre-brouillet.jpg