Jenny Free Verse

JENNY FREE VERSE Balaclava over my head, I nipped into the John Hewitt and went nervously up to the bar. 'Are you a poet?' a woman's voice inquired. I dreaded the question, so embarrassed. It was a key moment. 'I'm ... I play with words on paper!' I fumbled in my pocket for a pen and notebook. 'I'm having fun with the language!' I laughed - I felt a great weight lift from my shoulders as she slipped the balaclava off my head and kissed me. 'Can I buy you a drink?' the lady bought me a Pernod, and hey presto! we were off to the races, talking passionately About Heaney, Mahon and Longley. Jenny Free Verse gave me her number, promised to have a look at my notebook and give me some feedback. 'Cheers!' I waltzed down the street, got back to the house in ¾ time, got my Italian leather, hand-crafted, writing journal out from the tall boy and wrote, ‘I just met Jenny Free Verse!'