The Ballad of Mutual Needs Squared

They walk together, a couple as strange to gossipers as can be

For he is much older than her, like a grandpa to her graceless she

Who has a mental illness, walking around in the zombie manner

Beside him holding his hand before the locals who are horrified

By this strange relationship; and could they really be having sex?

And afterwards is she lying down with a cup of tea AND a Bex?

The analgesic for those aging mothers in awe of Mother Teresa.

 

His mother was forced to move into an aged care nursing home

And he was left bereft, his need to care left him feeling so alone

He walked the streets wondering what to do with his needy self

The time he had on his hands being his ever-enduring wealth

And he walked and walked, and then he saw her standing there

At an empty bus stop looking as though she was going nowhere

As though she was sung about in a lullaby or in the Delta Blues.

 

And he walked up to her and around her hoping to catch her eye

And not before long and in her panic she began to openly cry

And he rushed to her and held her in his elderly but strong arms

She fell under his whisper, and became smitten by his charms

He told her he was a caring man who noticed her for a reason  

And because it was spring they had met in the lover’s season

And she swooned and said her name was Emily Charlotte Bronte.

 

He took her home as though neither had nowhere better to go

And soon, out of a needful co-dependency their love did grow

And they settled down and he looked after her domestic needs

Cleaned her flat, cleaned her kitty litter, and sorted out the weeds

And she thought, after all her horrid abuse, he was rock steady

And she wanted his whole name but only when he was ready

And he allowed her to call him by his school nick-name Freddie.