Three Women by Vera Meister

Arts Richmond

Online - 13 August 2020

As I walked idly round and round

I met three women in the town.

The first was young, without a care,

She wore bright ribbons in her hair.

With sparkling eyes and teeth like pearl,

All sought this blue-eyed, golden girl

Who’d drink and dance the night away

Until the early hours of day.

The second one was pale and wan,

With troubled eyes she scanned the town.

She searched for what, she did not know,

For things she’d lost so long ago.

Though worldly cares her shoulders bow

And lines of worry crease her brow,

Yet still she fights advancing years,

Hangs silver teardrops from her ears.

The third in black from head to toe;

And though her face she would not show,

She’d point a finger, bony white,

At those with whom she’d spend the night.

And though some went quite willingly,

Yet others begged her let them be,

But still they followed where she led,

And in the morning, all were dead.

from ABOUT TIME, the 2019 anthology of shortlisted entries from The Roger McGough Poetry Prize. Copies of this Anthology can be purchased for £5 including P&P from Arts Richmond.