The Three Serbian Girls

I disbelieved the Viscountess's claim.
‘Tell me the names of these three girls,
the ones who loved you so,
and who broke off all ties with you rather than see you with another?’

I investigated and sleuthed until I found the first address.
By candlelight I saw a sentimental, long-lashed girl,
kissing and weeping over a poem the Viscountess had once given her.

The second I spied had somehow got hold of one of the Viscountess's lace brassières,
and it was this that she fondled and cried over.

The third I discovered, after much toil,
to be the Viscountess herself,
her beautiful eyes locked with those in the mirror.


Sofia Chapman (Victoria)