Brolly Folly

Matthew was an honest man: a truly truthful fella.

But, on the way to church one day, he borrowed an umbrella.

Caught in rain, without a Mac and with no time to stop,

He spotted one abandoned in the doorway of a shop.

Not wanting to arrive in church bedraggled, drenched and soaked,

He thought ‘I’ll only borrow it, God shouldn’t be provoked’.

Secure in church, both warm and dry, he peeped up in the prayer

And saw the vicar looking grim with damp and dripping hair,

“Dear Lord” the vicar prayed, “forgive that soul’s misguided folly,

The one who wandered past the shop and stole my only brolly.”

Matthew, once an honest man, apart from the umbrella,

Kneels in church each Sunday now – a most repentant fella.