Laura and Ben were toddler friends

Born less than a year apart

Kindergarten playground buddies

Inseparable, right from the start

 

We watched them grow into teenagers

The two spoke as if one, of love and romance

they wanted to take their relationship further,

Give their young adult dalliance a chance

 

Each family wished them well. 

Their friends were overjoyed.

I was none too happy, not just displeased.

For crying out loud, I was bloody annoyed.

 

Their long-time friends and confidants

Were rooting for them, from a mutual corner.

Was it up to me to be the only one?

Who would take control and warn her?

 

Anticipating a Shakespearean tragedy enfolding

Similar to a Montague, Capulet slaughter

How could I soften this friendly-fired salvo?

Knowing I’d hurt my wife, my son, and my daughter.

 

Long before our children were born,

Jan and Terry lived on Acacia Road, number ten.

We lived across the street at number nine,

We were the best of friends back then

 

Visiting each other's houses was commonplace

It was always good to arrange a Friday night meet

We partied, barbequed, and dined often together, until 

We showed them pink booties for tiny feet

 

Jan and Terry were resigned to childlessness

The joys of raising children lost through flawed genetic code

Their difficulties with conception were mainly due to Terry

Burdened with lacklustre seed that slowly flowed

 

We curtailed our many visits to each other

I noticed Jan get upset seeing my ballooning wife

Who’s pregnancy was tough on both of us

We lived without peace, just constant strife, 

 

Jan and I had consoled each other once or twice

More than mere friends, we fooled around. 

Our sexual affair didn’t last as long as I’d hoped,

Jan called it off then she quietly went to ground.

 

Eventually, Jan announced she was now pregnant

Husband Terry walked out, slamming the door

He knew, without doubt, she had been unfaithful

He couldn't live with or love her anymore.

 

Jan and I drifted far apart after that

We both knew that our affair had been wrong

We've hardly acknowledged each other since

I've never acknowledged Ben, as my son.

 

Now Laura and Ben insisted on telling the world,

Of their engagement, one to each other.

These events were now so out of hand

Unaware that Ben was her stepbrother

 

Finally, we were all at their engagement party

Ashamed and trembling, I mounted the stage,

‘‘Stop!’’ ‘’This engagement breaks every rule,’’

‘‘Ben’s mother was my lover, in our younger days’’

 

I told the dazed crowd how it came to be

Apologising both to Laura and my wife

Told them how I was Ben’s father too

You could cut the stunned atmosphere with a knife

 

Jan pushed me aside as she mounted the stage

With a hurtfelt expression, she said a few words

‘It’s true Ben was conceived in his mother’s lover's bed

But it wasn’t you; Ben's father is Ethan Hurds

 

I thought then how I had lost it all

My loving wife and my daughter

I had told the world of my love affair

Now drowning, not even treading water

 

My tearful wife got up on the stage, bereft

Would she forgive me, for the years of love we’d built

It seems that was the last thing on her mind.

She plunged a metaphorical dagger into my heart, to the hilt.

She stood on the stage and spoke directly to our Laura
Announcing that the engagement was definitely through.

Laura was conceived in a passionate liaison

Also, with Ethan Hurds, at Acacia Road, number two.