Not Quite Gone Yet.

OK, late as it is, I had to write down what was in my head before I climbed the wooden hills to Bedfordshire.

With acknowledgments to WB Yeats and Rudyard Kipling, and sincere apologies to beautiful, demure Chinese women everywhere. Especially in Australia, in case I get duffed up!

I think I will arise now
And go to Mandalay.
Nine maidens will I find there,
And they will stand and say:

‘Hello you lonely Englishman,
And how are you today?’
‘I’m very well,’ I will reply,
‘I’d like to know the way
To all those places writ in verse
Where flying fishes play.’

'No flying fishes now, my lad,'
They tut without delay.
'There’s only us, sweet maidens all,
From China, ’cross the bay.'