Things had stalled then tapered off

For Bill and Gwen had reached the stage

Where sex is what other people do

When love has turned its final page

 

Salad days gone and keen to downsize

They found a bungalow, cheap they said,

It had leaky flashing and woodworm

Above all, a full-length gilt mirror over the bed

 

That first night under a wrinkled reflection

As the pair stared uneasy at the ceiling,

Almost by alchemy the mirror provoked them,

First Bill then Gwen recovered some feeling

 

After that they rarely let up, day or night,

But woodworm curbed their geriatric haze

For suddenly the mirror fell, veering at the couple

Who, for a change, were going at it sideways

 

Gwen's life flashed before her eyes while

Bill screamed, for he was no longer a man

- A shard of glass had severed his tackle

Before slicing through the rest of the divan

 

Nothing remained to put a tourniquet on and

Gwen frowned as she retrieved Bill's wood;

Thick gore drenched the old cougar as

She pondered the downside of widowhood

 

A month after the inquest she shed her weeds

And though a new mirror loomed over the duvet

Her Spanish toy-boy proved, despite Gwen's wiles

Far too self-conscious with her  to have his way

 

Dying of desire and glancing up at the mirror

Gwen was seized by a bleak, uncanny thrill

- For glaring down at them, ready to drip blood

Was the castrated corpse of her husband, Bill!