Lorna, My Tempest!

You may be several oceans away, but I feel so close to you.

Today, I lay on my warm, cosy bed, and tried to snore off,

But sleep has eluded me again.

I had another frightful dream.

Even in the last few hours, I'm still awake.

And it is an ice-cold morning.

Over a hot cup of chocolate, I have thought about you, Lorna,

My tempest, my thunderstorm, the eye of a hurricane in me.

Since your journey to the land of the Queen,

My life never turned out the same.

Our children want to know where you travelled and why you haven't returned?

But I haven't got an answer for them, all I remember now,

Are just figments of your gentle and kind smile.

Kate, your ten-year-old daughter cares for her brothers and sisters,

She's growing up fast, and Karen grins shyly. She has missing front teeth.

Every now and then, she looks under the heavy, brown Mahogany cupboard,

To see if the fairy mouse has placed some silver coins.

I smile at that intergenerational trick, the same anecdote my parents passed down to me.

Your boys, Kevin and Kennedy long for you,

They remember your lovely lullabies and bedtime stories.

I manage the bookstore we've built through the years,

I have purchased more used books in Australia and the U.S.

It's a lovely collection.

I have also built a digital online library for e-readers.

I anticipate mor

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e subscriptions; I know you'll be pleased.

On solitary nights, I read classics on my piano-black Kindle.

I laugh about the adventures of Astérix and Obelix, Tintin, Ichuri - the clever hare to David Copperfield.

My dream tells me you fell in love with another man,

A handsome blue-eyed Englishman, from a royal and well-to-do family.

I live with some hope that this is only a dream,

A phantom mirage in the desert, a blazing phoenix!

Whenever I call you in the evening hours, I receive strange, stellar voice mails, with a sad foreign accent.

Our children are restless.

Since you vanished into the misty, and sparkling streets of Liverpool,

Our time has stood still.

Greet the beloved Kop at Merseyside.

A big shout-out to Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Konate!

How I long to see you one more time,

And I look into those brown, sparkling eyes of yours that enchanted me years ago,

Your slender, oval face has illuminated my world and still does.

Nothing in this world is etched in stone,

Not even the great Queen, who was laid to rest at the Taj Mahal,

A beautiful monument to love,

Her lover never expected the sand of time to prevail prematurely.

Life is a slippery path which we walk each day,

We await your return to the land of 100,000 sunsets.

A "Pearl of Africa" for Sir Winston Churchill,

An intriguing green paradise on the equator.