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Path of Peace

It wasn’t that her parents wouldn’t attend

because the wedding clashed with Remembrance Day

and poppies exerted a powerful hold;

nor that my Best Man was newly diagnosed

as a schizophrenic cum manic depressive –

though we were both in two minds about that.

Neither that my brother-in-law turned up

in a T-shirt bearing the legend

                    Bullshit

overdid the bevies and insulted my mother,

obliging me to step in and suffer

the customary glass smashed over the forehead,

a visit to Casualty and several stitches.

And in retrospect I can see it was funny

to be trapped in a lift for 2 or more hours

with a freshly bought packet of fags and no matches.

No, the worst of all was when Path of Peace,

a horse I’d followed with more faith

than reason, triumphed at 25-1

in the last big race of the Flat season.

What with one thing and another

I never got to put the bet on.  

After 32 years of Steeplechasing

I can bring myself to talk about it.

  

 

◄ Sky Garden

Alf Ramsey - My Part In His Success ►

Comments

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Cathy

Sat 17th Nov 2012 22:55

Funny! And the wedding picture is colourful- it's like all the differing letters in a ransom note.

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Ray Miller

Fri 16th Nov 2012 18:13

Thanks. It's all true, actually, Isobel. 8/11/1980, Path of Peace won the November Handicap at Doncaster at 25-1 and my wife and I got married.Seems like only yesterday. Wish it was yesterday, I'd have made sure I got the bet on!

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Isobel

Fri 16th Nov 2012 16:04

And I'm left wondering how much this is down to imagination and how much is true :)

It's very funny - it kind of reminds me of a quirky english film. :)

I like the dryness of the humour and the title/name of the horse is perfect.

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