Upon a quire did I inscribe
at length a memoir at eventide
Running it widdershins in my mind
I let the day then unwind

Imbibing a brandy rare and sweet
I watched the fire near my feet
Next I knew the night had passed
and morning came far too fast

Red were the skies with shifty air
So I grabbed my bumbershoot
Then descended the stairs
lumbering in a tan, tattered old suit

The cattywampus cobblestones
beneath my feet like I'd always known
as I limped with a familiar sensation
A soreness leftover of pandiculation

It seems a foul and cruel design
at work against me something awful
put a spell then on my mind
and gave me the collywobbles

Then as I hobbled on
down the rue for a bit
I came across my neighbor
Miss Flibbertigibbet

Not one word
edgewise or other
could I even try
to think to utter

Her quickly asked
and as quickly abandoned
questions came and went
as I struggled standing

I learned through the throbbing
that her daughter had wed
and her beau was a tinker
pounding in my head

Her own mother's visit
had been thankfully short
and her sister was suffering
with a nasty wart

Now it seemed
through my blurry eyes
Her words and lips
had multiplied

The women at the club
had made an anonymous donation
to the veterans charitable
organizations

My labored smile
and half-hearted nods
were enough for awhile
to help her go on

As my freezing body
barely holding on shook
she told how the dockyards
saw a real Donnybrook

And as she narrated
a debate I knew nothing about
It was then I fell over
and promptly blacked out

Waking in the wing
of a hospital I knew
I felt bewildered
and not sure what to do

Until she walked in
and then I understood
I'm so thankful to have her
in my neighborhood