The Skirt They All Loved

Along the rain-soaked streets he followed her
To ev'ry place she haunted as she would.
The customers could feel her presence there,
And always bought her pints & left their tips.
 
They honored her this way for who she was,
Good-natured lass from fiery island breed.
With hair unbound that took their breath away,
And limbs that told their stories with her knees.
 
Her history has held her in good stead,
That's why the men of generations mourn.
'Tis here at Portsmouth 'cross the pond she passed,
Consumption of the sailors she loved best.
 
Aye, there's the girl & grit who had their hearts,
Though all her kith & kin had perished whence.
The years of famine carried them away,
She hence survived who had her on their pay.
 
'Tis said by those who knew back in the day
She had a strapping comer's heart of gold.
She saved men's lives and matrimony's too,
That's why the women loved her even more.
 
But I digress, what happened to the lad;
I hear from some he's taken up with her.
They moved to Cornwall, tried to settle down.
Hard times, they're squatters in a bog-man flat!
 
 
April 17 ( NaPoWriMo 2017 )