MartinOde

When We Were Rubbish

We didn’t know then, At the Wig and Pen

And a thousand bars, when we were barely men,

The twists and turns, the chicanes of life,

That one day you’d be fifty with Sarah your wife.

We didn’t know then that there was anything beyond

The Camden Palais, the Criterion Demi-Monde,

Two sweet-talking Romeos in a mood to impress,

With monochrome day jobs and a taste for excess.

We knew we were love-fools, that much is true,

Striking a pose in a white Sailor suit,

Waiting for the Love Boat, (that ship seldom sailed,)

Love was the drug and we always inhaled.

At the Red Fort scoffing Sheep Brains and Chapatti,

30 years on I drive a Micra, you a Maserati,

The twists and turns, the chicanes of life,

And now you’re fifty with Sazzy Beal your wife.

How were we to know, traipsed in a stranger's boudoir,

That now we'd be on the sofa with a good Nordic Noir,

That we'd get jaded by nightclubs, bored with the beguine,

That tainted love and careless whispers wouldn't be our scene?

We didn’t know then, it was all such a blur,

Slim-waisted hipsters, (Oh yes we were!)

Young guns having fun, guilty as charged,

Then we had Thatcher, now Nigel Farage,

But Ken is still with us, now your Brother-In Law,

Drinking your Rioja, still dreaming of Clause 4.

How could we know then, at the Wig and Pen,

As we swaggered The Strand, self-styled swordsmen,

The twists and turns, the chicanes of life,

That we'd be toasting your 50th, with Sarah Beal your wife ..