.

The Meat Purveyor’s Son

Aesthetically impaired, she was the heir
to daddy’s fortune. She was plumpish, short
and much too close together were the eyes.
She hankered after marriage with a man
to birth at least a daughter and a son.
Alas! She wasn’t what you’d call an English rose.

Her parent’s expectations sharply rose
upon the news there was an eligible heir.
He was the wealthy meat purveyor’s son.
They curried favour swiftly, time was short,
to marry off their daughter to a man
who wouldn’t mind contortion of the eyes.

The father looked the daughter in the eyes.
“You’ll meet him in the Garden of the Rose
at 10 o’clock, he’s not a daylight man.”
All through the day she gaily walked on air,
imagining her cottage, grass cut short
for picnics with her daughter and her son

awaiting for the meat purveyor’s son.
She prayed he wouldn’t mind about the eyes
and hoped he wasn’t tall as she was short.
She gave herself a squirt of ‘Musky Rose’,
then skipped to meet her eligible heir
convinced he was, for her, the perfect man.

The meat purveyor’s son, a weasley man,
was under orders soon to have a son.
Inheritance depended on an heir.
He’d seen the look that day in father’s eyes,
and thanked the gods this golden chance arose.
His gambling addiction left him short.

He wasn’t awful fussed if she was short,
as long as she was desperate for a man.
He spotted her behind the petalled rows.
She dared to kiss the meat purveyor’s son,
who noticed a contortion of the eyes.
She sensed a common bonding in the air.

The meat purveyor’s son picked her a rose.
In short, she knew by then she’d bagged her man
and soon was born an eye-contorted heir.

.

.

Shirley Bunyan is a nanny living in Hertfordshire England. She recently had a poem read on BBC Upload. She also had a poem short-listed and subsequently published by Hammond House.

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14 Responses

  1. Jeremiah Johnson

    Shirley, Thanks for this enjoyable and well-penned story. I’m discussing Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own” this morning with my World Lit class, and your poem, with it’s good-humored irony, feels oddly like it fits in. I might read it to them 🙂

    Reply
    • Shirley Bunyan

      Thank you so much, Jeremiah. It’s just a bit of fun. I’m happy you enjoyed it 🙂

      Reply
  2. Shirley Bunyan

    Thank you so much, Jeremiah. It’s just a bit of fun. I’m happy you enjoyed it 🙂

    Reply
  3. Paul Freeman

    That’s wonderful, Shirley. This is the art of storytelling Chaucer taught us.

    Reply
  4. jd

    Good Sestina! I enjoyed reading it and was
    pleased with the happy ending to the humorously sympathetic story. Sestinas are quite the challenge.

    Reply
  5. Joseph S. Salemi

    This is a piece of craftsmanship that must have taken a lot of work! Heir and air; along with Rose, rose (the flower), rows, rose (past tense of rise), and arose (past tense of arise), are delightful.

    Reply
    • Shirley Bunyan

      Thank you so much, Joseph. I so appreciate and am encouraged by your comments 🙂

      Reply
  6. Casey Robb

    What a delightful poem! A dramatic story with tension, climax, and a whimsical resolution, while maintaining a perfect, smooth rhythm within the challenging sestina structure. Quite an accomplishment! Thanks for sharing it!

    Reply
    • Shirley Bunyan

      Thank you so much, Casey. It’s so encouraging to receive positive comments.

      Reply
  7. Joshua C. Frank

    I like a story in sestina form! This was a good one. Thanks.

    My experience is that when a man really loves a woman, whatever she looks like is beautiful to him.

    Reply

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