More About Joan's Shorts.

(   On the floor of her bedroom lie blazer and shorts ...

 A Subaltern's Love Song.

    J. Betjeman )

On the floor of her room they lie now vacated,

 lightly discarded as if not at all sacred;

but the sun of late evening, seeming to know,

 shines low through the casement and, golden, they glow.

How she had blessed them with her form and her sweat

 as she covered the court from baseline to net.

Against such a spectacle how hope to recall

 that most valuable pointer: 'Eyes on the ball!'

Now, it is my intention, this coming night,

to ask darling Joan to be my young wife;

 but if to my suit she unfavourably retorts,

I'll be grateful to settle for her unlaundered shorts.

.