Rufinus
Save water, Prodike-
bath with a friend!
We’ll crown each other with foam,
and knock back some champagne.
We haven’t all that long
before our wrinkles mean
we’re past our shag-by date -
not just that the water is too hot.
*
Didn’t I warn you, Prodike,
we would grow old?
Now come the wrinkles and the grey hairs,
the sagging body and the slack mouth.
Who fancies us now?
They can smell the death on us.
*
How proud and scornful you were, Melissa,
in your glory days - with your flashing eyes,
your swan’s neck
and your ankle chains -
when everybody wanted you.
Where’ s it all gone?
Now your hair is cut by the junior,
your clothes are from the charity shop,
your jewellery is in hock.
Serves you right,
you snotty cow.
*
I love every single thing about you,
except for your awful
taste in men.
bath with a friend!
We’ll crown each other with foam,
and knock back some champagne.
We haven’t all that long
before our wrinkles mean
we’re past our shag-by date -
not just that the water is too hot.
*
Didn’t I warn you, Prodike,
we would grow old?
Now come the wrinkles and the grey hairs,
the sagging body and the slack mouth.
Who fancies us now?
They can smell the death on us.
*
How proud and scornful you were, Melissa,
in your glory days - with your flashing eyes,
your swan’s neck
and your ankle chains -
when everybody wanted you.
Where’ s it all gone?
Now your hair is cut by the junior,
your clothes are from the charity shop,
your jewellery is in hock.
Serves you right,
you snotty cow.
*
I love every single thing about you,
except for your awful
taste in men.
Page(s) 47
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The