Nora, Nora

 Nora, Nora


Nora, Nora is her name, I hope

Her lunch companion called her

One hundred times or more

While talking for an hour. 


Oh where Oh where is Uncle Colm

When you need to intervene

To get a word in edgeways 

To free the hostage from this hell?


Dear God, it’s Nora once again

The name repeated 

So the victim cannot move if named

A cunning provincial plan. 


Will she flee in silence or scream out

When her sanity is spent 

And patience has deserted

Her table by the sea?


Meanwhile at a nearby table

Silence reigns where a couple 

Have said everything that needs saying

In sixty years of marriage ceasefire. 


Twenty females outnumber men

By ten to one and where are all 

The husbands? Are they dead

And left their widows dine?


Nora’s dining partner silent now

For at least ten seconds. 

What clever husband escaped

Some years ago, alive or dead?

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