A Foreign Country

Revisiting the past.

“The past is a foreign country”, L.P. Hartley wrote,
but I visit it often, though that country is remote.
My imagination takes flight and recalls Barbarella,
the versatility of Satchmo and of the vocalist Ella.
I drooled over Jane Fonda’s out-of-space striptease
and the thoughts it elicited filled me with unease.
My girlfriend and I were at the time going steady
but for such an experiment she was not yet ready.
She categorically stated that she was not a prude
but not before marriage I’d see her in the nude
and explained in few words that the proper thing
was to go to a jeweller and buy a wedding ring.
I immediately used a method that never fails,
I threw a coin in the air and wished for ‘tails’.
I remember that it was ‘tails’ and I felt a tingle;
she is still a spinster and I carry on being single.

© Luigi Pagano