My boyfriend was keen on The Races.
Colourful and exciting he told me,
with a fairground atmosphere.
I believed him.
I expected a fairground as well
I don’t know why
perhaps he told me so
and I believed him.
It was muddy, very muddy.
All the colours were mud colour.
The horses ran past quickly once or twice each hour.
In between you could walk round
slipping and sliding in the mud.
There was no fairground,
no atmosphere,
there was nothing.
He was miserable,
he’d lost money
even on his ‘each way’ bets.
You’ll be as surprised as I was to know
that ‘each way’ does not mean win or lose.
It was cold, really, really cold.
He said I was miserable.
Of course I was miserable!
It started to drizzle.
“They’re under Starters orders now!
Look they’re off.”
So was I,
I went home on the bus.
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A Day at the Races
by Lynn White
Bio: Lynn White lives in North Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. She was shortlisted in the Theatre Cloud 'War Poetry for Today' competition and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and a Rhysling Award.
Find Lynn at: https://lynnwhitepoetry.blogspot.com and https://www.facebook.com/Lynn-White-Poetry-1603675983213077/
