Fare Thee Well My Lovely:

She grew larger in my heart each day

As my understanding crawled and walked

From infancy to man.

A splendid sort of enchantment and loveliness

Bewitched me and stirred

All who chose to know her.

She dreamt vast dreams

And made them real,

My mentor, my roll model,

My True Love.

Her quick intelligence

Scanned broad horizons,

And her vitality and poise

Shone like a beacon

In a complex, uncertain world

Which danced to her music

And tried to appropriate her clothes.

From time to time I moved away

But held her close in my heart,

Missing her soul’s transformative beauty

And her wit and wisdom,

Whilst holding fast

To her glorious dreams,

Living them and sharing them,

Of justice, fairness and the

Celebration of all people

As miraculous individuals

Who, each and every one, had value

Beyond the riches of Croesus.

But every time I returned to her

She had changed.

She was less welcoming,

Not just to me but also to others,

And this puzzled me,

Saddening me greatly.

And so time passed,

As pass it must,

And the world changed,

As change it must.

And the day came

When at last I understood!

Just as I was,

She was growing old,

But with my True Love, age was

Atrophying her once open,

Welcoming and loving heart.

Her clothing too became more tired,

Lacking it’s once wild and

Wonderful innovation.

She was losing her style,

Her posture was less firm and strong,

And her once wonderful

Outgoing and adaptable mind

Started turning ever more inward,

Dreaming now dreams of a past

When all was so straightforward,

Or so her faltering memory told her;

A past when those around her

Were all of one mind,

All white, all ‘British and proud of it’

Knowing their place,

Uncomplicated, Church of England

And the Union Flag.

Days and years flew on by,

Tossing all and sundry

Here and there

In the rapids of

Inexorable change.

And as it did so

A cold claw of fear

Came to grasp my heart.

I watched her as she became

Unable to adapt and enjoy,

In the thrall of some brutal form of

Dementia which was strangling her

Once free and brilliant mind,

Stifling her once soaring soul.

Watching closely became too distressing

And in cowardice and despair

I stepped back,

Stayed away from my old Love

Though I followed her every move

On social media and the news,

And wept in silent horror,

As her splendour turned to dust.

Then it was that the day came,

Heralding the now inevitable

Terminal decline.

She was still too strong though

To die swiftly,

Too strong and now too bitter!

She became incontinent,

Spewing excrement, vomit and bile,

And I watched, impotent,

As her body commenced

To tear itself apart

And fall inward,

Becoming a small,

Mewling, pathetic creature,

Biting and lashing out

At all around her

That was different from

The now corrupted dream

Of the long lost,

Halcyon, unreal reality.

And so it stands with her,

With my True Love,

And, by God, this is

Awful beyond words!

Let it end!

Let the suffering soon be over,

For my poor Beloved,

My desperate, dying, Britannia.