Lilla,1905 Poem by Wild Bill Balding

The census: successful Southport spinster,
nursing sister, touching 40.
The inheritance: left by your aunt
let down by her lover,
leaving everything to you,
never trusting a man again.

Four years later, sudden wedding:
none of your family there to witness
the (older, widowed) Wisconsin rancher
marry you in Liverpool
(not home, in London)
and take you over the water.

Part of the way over the water.

No stone for your grave in mid-Atlantic;
no body for an enquiring toxicologist;
no trace of your husband in American records;
no diamonds or silver, just a paper trail
and a family's fortune changed for ever.