Mnemonic on Palindromic Chronometry.
I walked to the old boat yard quay,
Intent, gazing over the sea
And stood in this style
For just a short while,
Then a young charmer stepped up to me.
Her hair, in the sunlight was gleaming;
As down to her shoulders 'twas streaming.
Said she:"please tell me
What you see in the sea."
I said: "Nothing dear, I was dreaming."
"Of what," said this lass, with a beam-
ing smile, "Is this thing that you dream?"
I said: "If you've time
For a quick gin and lime,
I'll outline the wonderful scheme."
I bought her a lager and lime,
And told her, alas, not in rhyme,
A dream I had had,
Though she think me mad,
Of a happening in near future time.
I told her I'd stood on that quay,
And dreamed that a girl spoke to me,
And asked me my dreams,
And they were, so it seems,
That I'd buy her a large G and T.
We'd come to this same seaside bar,
I'd tell her my dreams, of a star-
Kissed girlwho would ask
My thoughts, and the task
I'd start. "Now hold on , that's quite far...
"...enough." quoth the maid, "This could go
Forever." I said:"Oh dear, no.
For one of these girls,
With her fine golden curls,
And the loveliest smile, halts me, so..."
I tell her of neap and spring tide,
And my old granddad's travels, with pride;
And a tale told by he,
Referring to me,
And she satquite in thrall, sparkling eyed.
(Oh Lord, this is just the preamble,
It's going to be quite a long ramble.
I think in the time
You finish this rhyme
You could row from Seattle to Hamble.)
My granddaddy, ship's cabin boy,
Was out in that port called Hanoi,
Or perhaps Singapore,
A-strolling ashore,
When an old Chinese crone cried "Ahoy!"
In a voice that was cracked as a bell,
She started her subtle soft sell,
And here's what she's offerin':
For only a sovereign
She said that the future she'd tell.
At a time and a date palindromic,
With fears of a slump economic,
That the son of his heir,
To a bar would repair,
With a golden girl drink gin and tonic.
He gave her a glance wholly quizzical,
He'd no time for things metaphysical,
But her eyes held such power
As she spoke: "at that hour
The whole world will turn paradisical."
I reckon we're maybe half way.
I'm glad you've been able to stay.
Return then to now 'n'
The sun has gone down,
And my honey blonde lady will say...
She laughed in a tinkling chime, [no cracked bells now]
"That's the worst spiel I've heard in my time,
And even if true,
'Bout me and 'bout you,
This drink, lad, is lager and lime."
Whereon I soon made intercession,
Said "We're on the edge of recession,
And as for that gnomic
Third clause, palindromic,
We've time left a-plenty this session.
"The year is two thousand and two,
And that's palindromically true.
The date, my dear Deb [for that was her name]
Is twentieth Feb,
And that is a palindrome too.
"Round a quarter to eight I'll buy you,
A large G andT, and me, too.
And make sure we're sipping,
Or otherwise tipping
It throatwards at 20:02"
(If you haven't figured it out, the time and date at this point is
20:02 20/02 2002, and you can't get much more palindromic than that.)
So what happened next?
We each then looked up from our glass
Our eyes met. You may think it crass,
But from that moment there
We were walking on air,
As now, and for many days/weeks/months/years* past.
*Delete to suit when you read this.
I looked up But no magic wand
Had waved; had my granddad been conned?
Her sweet smile had gone;
She looked rather wan:
"Alas, I'm no natural blonde."
I looked round, but all was the same.
I said "Bye, I'll see you again.
How 'bout here, next week?"
She shrugged, didn't speak,
And I trudged off home in the rain.
I called to see granny next day.
I told of my tryst by the bay.
"So, gran, was it true,
What granddad told you?"
And here's what my granny did say...
"A sailor's a girl in each port,
He thinks he's entitled to court;
He thought me a saint,
But boy, that I ain't,
And I had myself, too, some sport.
So when he came home from his trawlling,
And found me, with babby a-crawling,
He hadn't a clue
What the milkman would do,
When here for his money he's calling."
< Thursday, February 28, 2002 <