Henrietta Poem by Francis Duggan

A warm day in Spring in mid October the birds are singing on the sunlit trees
And in the shade Henrietta is sitting her shoulder length greying hair blowing in the breeze
An incurable romantic a romantic novel she is reading she seems so relaxed on her green plastic chair
White butterflies are flitting in the garden and Nature's aroma is in the morning air.

Henrietta she is in her early fifties just separated from husband number three
Unlucky in her husbands and her lovers there are many others such as she
Her first grandchild last year a girl born to her daughter and though in her brown hair now there is much gray
She looks more like one in her early forties and she does not feel her age in any way.

From her three marriages a son and daughter in their twenties who knows she may give marriage one more try
She does not wish to be known as a serial divorcee all sorts of tags to all sorts do apply
She feels her soul mate he is somewhere out there for her poor choices the price she did pay
But love is blind as wiser counsel tell us and love for her has been a bit that way.

The men she loved they changed when married to her even though to them she was a loving wife
By all of them she was abused and beaten there are some thorns upon the paths of life
As she reads her novel in the shade of the cypress white butterflies flit in the bright sunlight
And like the novel her quest for love will have a happy ending for she feels one day she will meet Mr Right.