Very Subdued Indeed (Revised) Poem by Margaret Alice Second

With strange piano tuners staying over
at the farm my twin lives in an activity
whirl, drinking lots of wine and beer while
cursing the piano's unwilling steel strings

She indulges in wild quests to find missing
registration papers, attends family weddings,
visits with her stepdaughter and beau; then
breathlessly my sis wants to know

Whether my life is such wild theatre also,
I say no, not at all, mine is slow, very few
events and little intrigue - though my son
keeps us guessing how he will get on

In school, he claims never to have home-
work - and we wonder if our daughter is
home because she never shows - I have
to visit her room, standing space only

For an interview with the pert little Miss
who is intolerant of her old folks - action
I see is very subdued indeed, much more
resembling a Jane Austen miniature

While my twin lives Hammond Innes, Ian
Fleming and James Hadley Chase all
combined, it seems…