Alexis Lykiard
Expats
Larkin, great little Englander on song,
whose views were partial, narrower than long,
lives on... But in their shuttered châteaux shits
annoyingly turn out to be thick Brits,
who choose to chase idyllic shadows. It’s
whatever turns you on, what chapeau fits.
Escaping one’s own overcrowded land,
investors in a life-style cheap and grand
can snipe. They’re smug, or mutter ‘Antiquated’;
boast ‘No Regrets’. An eagerly awaited
licence to go native makes toffs misbehave,
bray disaffection - maybe to the grave.
Abroad’s the place, no duty there to think.
Each rounds on poor Grey Britain doomed to sink.
So, down the hatch, farewell millennial Dome,
here’s Pierrot’s Bar, a snugger home-from-home.
Aged curmudgeons, tough rapacious young -
virtues and vices of a piece, if not unsung -
grow bold in booze. Manners are grandiose;
spirits unshakeable, till comatose
they earn shady siesta and oblivion’s crown.
The Simple Life means trashing this small town:
drive hell for leather, mow the buggers down.
Just shout at Johnny Foreigner, speak ultra-slow.
Playing dumb? (Quick condescending smile bestow.)
They all comprenday in the end, you know,
while those few fools who can’t won’t tell you so.
Ignore their envy of a top-class show!
Page(s) 49
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