Victoria Anderson-Throop Poet Light Verse

Kipling's Cheaters

Kipling's Cheaters


      You may talk of cheatin' lawyers
      You may talk of cheatin' wives
      But you’ve not been touched
      By the cheaten' kiss
      ‘Til an African steals your life.
      They cheat you down the highway
      Steal the very road
      And when they’ve got
      Your mother’s dime
      They’ll steal your
      Very soul.

     The first time I got taken
     It was a simple thing 
     I bought a round trip ticket
     A short cruise topped the bling
     But later in Nairobi 
     When planning my return
     I found the ticket agent
     Had cashed the thing and run.

     So forced to work my way home
     I looked for good employ
     A well known college hired me
     For work I did enjoy.
     The first month past with no pay
     And then another two
     And when I asked for wages
     They laughed and  said “ So SUE”

     So angry was I at them
     I pouted and I screamed--
     Never did imagine
     To be so roundly schemed!
     Love letters I was getting
     In piles from handsome men
     it cheered me up a bit
     to make romantic plans
     But what it was they wanted 
     was not my sweet caress 
     I was just their
     their passport
     to travel to U. S.
     
     I took another job next,
     A bio chemist’s plan--
     He wanted me to write a grant
     For AIDS surviving clans.
     I wrote all day and night then,
     The mission was so grand!
     He emptied out the bank account
     And left me with the pen.

     So tell me you’ve been cheated
     Excuse me, if you please--
     For 'til you’ve been to Africa
     You're still a babe to fleece.

Jan 20, 2013

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David Fisher January 21, 2013 at 7:30 PM Wow, if there is all or some truth to that. As I read along, the lines sped along-at about the same speed as the fleecing. Fun, but tragic. Victoria Anderson-Throop January 22, 2015 at 7:11 AM Sorry it took so long to reply to my cautionary tale. Several messages just popped up~ As to the tale.....sad but true.