The gossipers

Dylan Thomas

1914 to 1953

Poem Image

The gossipers have lowered their voices,
Willing words to make the rumours certain,
Suspicious hands tug at the neighbouring vices,
Unthinking actions given causes
Stir their old bones behind cupboard and curtain.

Putting two and two together,
Informed by rumour and the register,
The virgins smelt out, three streets up,
A girl whose single bed held two
To make ends meet,
Found managers and widows wanting
In morals and full marriage bunting,
And other virgins in official fathers.

For all the inconvenience they make,
The trouble, devildom, and heartbreak,
The withered women win them bedfellows.
Nightly upon their wrinkled breasts
Press the old lies and the old ghosts.