The bereavement group

This photo is copyright

The other women  sat and gawped
As if I’d looped  on the loop  on the loop
They didn’t want   another old face
In this  so called bereavement group

One had made a great sponge cake
The best I ever ate
She handed me a tempting  big slice
Though I’m already over-weight

One  cried out she felt distressed
I asked her  when  had he died?
21 years ago she said
And I am still half alive

I waited for the group to start
I’d been there for an hour
A group they cried, we came to chat
And they had all the power

The noise their  shrieking  voices made
Made my  head feel strained
I ate the cake and sat alone
Like a goldfish that fell down a drain

Up  I got and said,I’m off
The  nun in charge was pained
The talking stopped and I said, goodbye
I shall not be coming again

She tempted me with her rosary beads
She tempted me in vain
I  thought I knew what a group might do
But to these others it was not very plain

They’ve all been going for  so many years
It’s nothing to do with the brief
For surely if  it was, they would have been kind
To another lost person in grief

Now the hairdresser’s cut my hair very short
I look  like the chemo is strong
I didn’t look in the mirror for no-one is here
And  my image  has gone with the wind