Kenny Knight
Theodore
When the stitches split to reveal
Masses of undigested stuffing
The doll doctor diagnosed child-slaughter.
We sat around Roosevelt’s bed
Until his fur grew cold.
That night we cried so much
The rain came down in sympathy .
Mother left off her knitting
To colour new holes in jumpers and socks .
Roosevelt bedded down for the night,
His last night in the land of pyjamas,
Before moving in with the tin cans
And potato peelings, the lumps of left-over lard
The moultings of dust and cat hair.
On the day that Roosevelt was put out to porridge
Representatives were sent by the publishers
Of Winnie the Pooh, Goldilocks and Rupert.
President Kennedy arrived from the White House,
Marilyn Monroe draped on his arm like an American flag.
It was the most historical few minutes
Ever held around a dustbin.
Then when the men came walking along the street
In their dusty uniforms it seemed there was
A bereavement emanating from every home.
Under the dustbin lid in the darkness
There is one thing we all have in common -
Dead teddy bears don’t go on picnics.
Page(s) 35
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