The Lady from Bruges

There was a big lady from Bruges

She had a collection of shoes

That filled forty houses

Together with trousers

And millions of blouses

And hundreds of bottles of booze

She was unable to pick or could choose

A dress that would go with the shoes

So out she would go with her servants in tow

To sail the world on a cruise

She bought a big house in China

In the grounds was a terrible Tiger

Jaws opened wider and wider

It just couldn’t fit her inside it

So it left her outside and they found her

So lucky for her she was spared

And to show the Tiger she cared

She fed it the servants and girls

Who gave up their life on the Earth

The wise man explained that the girls

Were worth more than billions of pearls

Houses and money gold rings and rubies

Than Tiger’s so rare to this world

That night she thought of the words

That the wise man had spoken in verse

And looked at the bones of the girls

That shone in the moon in the dirt

She said I am sorry can you forgive me?

Your fate you just didn’t deserve

Next day she called in her money

She sold her house in the country

Her shoes, bright diamonds and jewellery

She opened a house in the City

For girls who were homeless and poorly

The big lady she became skinny

The girls all called her their mummy

She always gave them her money

She lay on the bed she was poorly

And called for the wise man who saw her

She begged him could she be spared

That when she went from this world

Remember you started to care

Said the wise man stroking her hair

He held her close as she sighed

And then she closed her old eyes

Her secret he took to his grave

He prayed for her soul to be saved

The gods they would judge on the day

Kevin Humphreys

26^th February 2011