She Was Only Seventeen Poem by Gypsy Boy Ravey

“He’s safe and with God now”, that’s what they all said,
While six feet below her, lay precious Michael, dead,
It was a cold black day, but she didn’t feel the rain,
She had cried so much now, she was numb to the pain.

“Be strong for me I’ll always love you”, she heard Michael say,
But she knew it was only in her mind, as they helped her away,
They had talked and planned, dreamed all summer long,
But now a cold wind was blowing, and her Michael was gone.

“They’ve taken him from me”, she couldn’t help but think,
As she heard Father say to Mother, “C’mon let’s get her a drink”,
They knew she was shattered, had lost loves precious dream,
Though she thought she was a woman, she was only seventeen.

“C’mon now my baby doll, we need you to be brave and strong”,
But she could only think: “they know, know they was wrong”,
She had loved her Michael, had given him all of her heart,
But her family had tried everything, to keep them apart.

“He is no good for you, you’re from two different worlds”,
But she had said: “what does it matter, he’s a boy, I’m a girl”.
“Look at how rough his family are, look at his dad and mam,
We’ve given you a Mercedes, do you want to drive a van? ”

“But you don’t know my Michael, so kind, so warm and so funny,
I love him with all my heart, some things you can’t buy with money”.
“We’ve slaved away for twenty odd years, given you only the best,
He is not good enough for our only daughter, put the matter to rest”.

So, she had pretended they had finished, but had another plan,
“They think he is using me, but this is no flash-in-the pan,
I know my Michael truly loves me, and I don’t care what they say,
If I can’t have him I won’t have anyone, we’re forced to run away”.

She knew their bond was true, Michael was a man-about-town,
And she had offered herself, but Michael had turned her down,
“No my handsome baby, I don’t want us to corrupt our love,
We will have plenty of time for all that, this we must rise above.

Your family think I’m no good, but I’ll prove myself to them,
I’ll not let them have anything to cast up to us, ever again”,
“But Michael I know what I want, this is what I choose”,
And though Michael tried, it was an offer he couldn’t refuse.

So, there passion was realised, and it had tied them together,
They knew they would grow old, and be together forever,
“We will run away soon, although I don’t have much money,
But I have an idea in mind, it won’t be long now my honey”.

He was an honest young man, but he knew of an old farm,
With only an old man living there, his dogs, and no alarm,
Michael had done work for the old man, for years off and on,
And he knew he was rich, but didn’t know: he slept with a gun.

Michael didn’t like the idea, but needed some money fast,
And the opportunity was to good, far too good to pass,
So he gathered his friends, and they worked out a plan,
“Whatever happens don’t hurt him, he’s not a bad old man”.

They had chosen a dark night, to go and rob the old man,
They all wore dark clothes and they had stolen a van,
But when they crept up to the farm, they heard a loud shout,
And they all ran for their lives, as two gunshots rang out.

They made it back to the van and as they opened the door,
“Where’s Michael”, someone said, “Is he not here? I don’t know”
They didn’t know what to do, they went home with a sense of dread,
At sunrise the police found Michael, he had been shot, shot dead.

Her parents found out and told her, then they done what they could,
And though they were upset; couldn’t help it: “we said he was no good”
“He done it all for me, we was running away and going to get married”,
But she didn’t have the strength to tell them, about the baby she carried.

She would raise their child alone, and his memory would always adore,
She was only seventeen, and her Michael was one year more…



(c) varey 2009