"Strudel for Two-dle"

Stephanie Curtis - 2008

  Ken Whitmore

                    Strauss Waltz

They meet by accident
in the Viennese restaurant
with the lilt of Strauss behind
and six weeks later are wed

now four more souls fully formed
looking like he, like she —
talking like she, like he —
dine with them at this table
with the same gestures
with the lilt of Strauss behind
all because she turned in at a door
and he fancied apfel strudel

too banal to be false
the same old human waltz

Arts & Crafts Menu Border - Ca. 1910

Ken Whitmore is an Englishman aged 70 and lives in France. Born in Hanley, Staffordshire, December 1st, 1937, Ken is prolific author of radio plays, stage plays, short stories and poetry. His writing is characterized by black humor and fantastic ideas, such as the complete disappearance of a man's house, family and dog (One of Our Commuters is Missing) and the need for all mankind to jump in the air simultaneously (Jump! - a work which was produced on radio, stage, TV and as a book.) His published stage plays are Jump for Your Life, Pen Friends, La Bolshie Vita, The Final Twist and The Turn of the Screw, adapted from the story by Henry James. He has just completed the adaptation and translation from the French of Topaze, Marcel Pagnol's masterpiece for the theater.

Ken is a regular contributor to The Centrifugal Eye


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