The Barge and the Bride
I was having a meal, steak egg and chips
At the Humpty Dumpty Inn,
Next to the Curly-Wyrley Cut
Where the Curly bits begin,
When I heard a shout from a passing barge
‘You'd better duck! ' it said,
Then the bone from a monster ham flew up
And it hit me in the head!
I fell to the crazy paving, gathered
My wits, and looked around,
And there was Joe on the ‘Autumn Queen'
With his daughter, Maggie Browne,
He'd said something to stir her blood
And she'd thrown the bone at him,
But missed - and always the lucky one,
I'd caught it on the chin!
‘I'll get you back for this, ' I yelled,
And I shook my fist at her,
But she just laughed, and stuck her foot
On the prow, to bait my glare,
She slowly pulled her dress right up
To the thigh, and showed a leg,
‘If you can beat us to Walsall Lock
You can have me, we'll be wed! '
I gathered Flynn and we hitched the horse
And we set off in pursuit,
But our old Barge was slow, and Jessie
The horse was old, to boot,
We carried a hundred tons of coal
And the going would be slow,
But Maggie had always turned me down
In the past… I'd let her go!
She knew I only had eyes for her,
She'd played me like a fool,
She'd flirt, then gather her skirts and run,
It seemed to be the rule,
I knew she wanted away from Joe
So this could be my chance,
She'd never gone back on her word before,
Was she ripe for a new romance?
They'd left us a half a mile behind
As we got her under way,
This dirty Barge with the fancy name
That I'd christened ‘Mandalay',
But Flynn got Jessie to heave and strain
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poem by David Lewis Paget
Added by Poetry Lover
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