Through centuries, society women have refined a code
to drag through mud society men -
and yet...
To ensure, still, these infinite scandals are told
in ways best discerned only by their 'set'..

Through these established means,
they gossip and chide
men they deem
fit to deride
men of standing,
of lineage,
of style
men of rank
and men of file
men that many outside of this class
think of as stoic,
subdued and steadfast..
rather instead,
as these doyennes well know,
are tactless and troublesome, are ruled by ego.

The way sentences are formed here -
and the tone in which they're said -
to the untrained ear
are never read
for what they really mean
and the rest that they imply
so the Rotary Club staff
never know to hang by
when champagne flute levels they pass to inspect
or Second Course dishes they come to collect.

"The man never tires.."
an example one can give,
refers to cads in the circle,
who, as long as they live,
will have a mistress -
or two, or three -
and wife to, through it all,
smile jubilantly.

''He's had a year or so of trouble.."
is another way to say
a man whose debts double
with every passing day,
whose old fortune rests on a hanging thread
and wife corners accountants
with a rising dread
demanding to know why it should be
monthly expenses are challenged with alarming frequency.

"His son is still away most of the year.."
is a manner of speaking which makes it quite clear
a patriarch and his heir do not get along
the latter does not visit, nor call or belong
perhaps for shacking up outside of his caste,
or an 'explorative phase' determined to last..

"His whiskey never comes with ice.."
is designed to imply
certain men in their midst struggle to get by
without Dutch courage,
or whatever their crutch
they lean on,
get mean on,
stutter and such.

So, you see, in this style -
how much is conveyed
and all the while
many things are relayed
and judgements passed
wry smiles are shared
and no erring man
Has yet been spared.

Copyright Yafeu-Khamisi Rodway-Brown