Friendship

For Jennifer Patterson (1928 - 1999 )
" Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love." Eli Wiesel.

You swore by the magic properties
of the foetid water of the Yangtze River
Of your childhood
Got expelled from the Convent
for being an unsuitable gel
Gave the gels gin for period pain
as matron of a boarding school
Got yourself into scrapes in Portugal
Drove the boys wild in Germany
Cooked up a storm with tapered red claws
Catering to Party Princesses
Loved your dahlings at the Oratory
Roared with laughter crackled with cigarettes
Pontificated in upper crust cut glass
modulated tones about choir boys being egg bound
Laced the custard with Brandy for the nuns
Drink, till it was coming out of your ears
Spill out over your tight black leather
Roaring around with Clarissa on your Harley Davidson
Eccentric adventurous warm kind creatively mad
You gave so much
You planted smiles
And you didn't know it