The Crooked English Mile

Александръ Пономаревъ
           Based on G.K.Chesterton

He went the crooked English mile,
A feature of the British isle,
That came to life a life ago
To contemplate along and go –
And teach the Englishmen to smile.

Both in the sun and in the rain,
Together with his walking cane,
Along the ancient Roman road
He there walked and here rode:
And people thought he was insane.

He lagged behind his weird fame
Of Don Quixote – that was his name.
His partner wasn’t way less strange –
He tried to catch up in the range,
Well, he was pretty much the same.

One day they saw a Flying inn
And they decided to come in
And have a beer, I can tell.
But they discovered a hotel.
Or did it seem so from within?

It changed in front of their eyes
All its elaborate disguise.
So they relaxed and took a breath,
And talked about life and death,
And sang each other lullabies.

At dawn a local shire reeve
Arrived to force the two to leave,
For he had got an order to,
Whenever he would see the two,
Drive them away, as I believe.

My Goodness, that was quite a chase!
They ran away from place to place,
But only joked, as I was told,
And still remained as brave and bold.
And hardly tried to keep the pace.

And once they stopped and made a turn,
For they desired to return.
And saw a man on a balloon,
Whose face was shining like a moon,
Who said: “Get in”. They didn’t spurn.

The flight was nice, and so they flew
Without asking why and who,
Though their faces tried to ask…
They drank some cognac from his flask –
But in the evening got the flu.

-My name is Thursday, - he replied,
And no one knew what he implied.
But there was something in his voice
That made the journeymen rejoice,
Though they stood stunned and horrified.

They, later, wanted to expose
His traits – like height, or eyes, or nose –
But found out they forgot!
They asked about him a lot –
But what he looked like…no one knows!

So that was it. The two got back,
And nothing could take them aback,
But still they looked, I dare say,
A bit estranged in their way.
And no one laughed behind their back.

It’s quite a story – you can note,
It has become in time remote,
And seems to be a bit of hoax –
It’s up to you, however, folks!
But I believe in what I wrote.