Dream Destination



THEME THURSDAY

http://themethursday.blogspot.com/2011/07/thursday-july-21-2011-country.html

DREAM DESTINATION

Maggie Smith has a lot to answer for,

Along with other actors;

They are not entirely guilty

But they are important factors

Contributing to the sorrow

I carry inside of me.....

The sorrow that reiterates

'Now you'll never see Tuscany.'

Supposing there were a Heaven,

I'd ask for it to be

Exactly like the mental picture

 I have of Tuscany.

And yet, amazingly, I've been there!

Or, at least, I have passed through.

You'd think I'd be able to tell you

If the advertising's true!

We had journeyed to Europe

With knapsacks on our backs,

Intending to see Europe

Via the railway tracks.

But in Paris icy rain came down,

In Rome it was the same.

In Florence it really bucketed!

A late Spring was to blame.

Dishevilled, wet and miserable

We decided to go home,

Turning our backs on the dreariness

And misery that was Rome.

'Let us try Lugano first.'

Both of us agreed

And we set off for Switzerland

With rather half-hearted speed.

And so we sped through Tuscany

On a very humdrum train

And we couldn't see the countryside

Because of the pouring rain!

Maybe it was only the edge of it;

I was in no mood to wonder,

Since I was only conscious

Of the grey clouds we were under.

Lugano was delightful,

As we hoped that it would be,

But now I'm left with this sadness.....

'I'll never see Tuscany'.

*

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I TOLD YOU SO!

One of life's greatest pleasures is saying 'I told you so!'

And I've been known to say it once or twice.

The recipient of the dictum is usually not slow

In telling me they don't need my advice!

But one occasion stands out in my meagre little brain

And I feel the need to tell you all about it!

I knew the World Economy was going down the drain!

I told The World, but the World just seemed to doubt it!

*

It was two whole years before the crash; it all seemed hunky dorey.

A young aquaintance (business-man) was speaking

About the strength of economies, in their monetory glory,

And of the future wealth that he was seeking.

And a little old lady (that was me) piped up and said her piece........

'Maybe there's nothing there! How do we know?'

And the gentleman exulting in the worldwide Golden Fleece

Reeled back as though I'd dealt a body-blow!

'You're just a little old lady' (I paraphrase his words)

'It's much too hard for you to comprehend!

Businessmen do business over the heads of common herds!

But everything's all right, on that depend.'

*

Maxine and I, we ponder; we view the world and see

The human follies other folk ignore.

We have a natural grasp of international currency

We see 'the less' when others see 'the more'.

And now we view the carnage, and look very, very sage,

Watching coffers shrink when they were meant to grow.

One advantage, Maxine dear, of our, well, venerable age

Is the chance to tell the World 'I told you so!'

*