Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

Dear Peter,
     It was good to get your letter
and I’m glad you’ve found the girl you say will make
the world, and all that’s in it, a far better
place to live in.
          Now, you mustn’t take
offence at what I feel I have to say.
Remember I am older and I know
a bit about the games that women play.
I’ve seen how dew-fresh virgins undergo
amazing changes almost overnight.
A lovely face of guileless innocence
when seen at 10pm in candlelight
can show, at 8am, plain evidence
of petulance, temper and a lack
of real intelligence, and furthermore
a sulky whine and raucous squeak and quack
replace what seemed such tuneful tones before.
So promise me you’ll come to no decision
about your latest girl, or any other,
before you’ve undertaken this commission:
make sure you take a long look at her mother,
for there you’ll see the shape of things to come.
If, after that, you still decide to marry
I wish you well, although the prospect’s glum.
So Mum’s the word,
         Your friend and mentor,
                   Harry.

Dear Harry,
     many thanks for your advice
which, knowing you to be a wise old guy,
I acted on at once and paradise
itself has been the consequence. When I,
a little apprehensively it’s true,
told Angela I thought it time I met
her mother Angie smiled as if she knew
about your mother-daughter claim or threat.
Anyway, the next weekend we drove
to Sussex where her mother, Isobel,
owns a little house not far from Hove.
Now comes the hardest part of it to tell.
I did just as you said I should: I gazed
at Isobel and she gazed back at me.
The spark of love ignited, flickered, blazed,
and we were both consumed. And so, you see,
your words were wiser than you knew dear Harry.
You’ll see the gorgeous creature when you meet her
as you must very soon before we marry.
Till then I am your most devoted,
             Peter