John Cotton
Thetis’s Advice
For a true mistress
Try Defeat,
She knows how to measure a man.
Her skin tastes
Of the bitterness of truth.
Avoid Sweetness,
The ultimate betrayer,
Who will lie to you for ever.
As for Victory, too expensive!
She is not called Pyrrhic
For nothing!
Hope is a whore
Who will bed with the first
Who comes along.
Between the sheets, against the wall,
She has no ‘side’,
And a democratic generosity.
Better Defiance,
The stuff of survival,
Though she too
Can be a fleeting mistress
Enjoy her in that knowledge,
Taste her, but not trust her.
We all like to play jokes,
Like not dipping your heel!
John Cotton’s most recent collection of poems was Here’s Looking at you Kid, published by Headland, and for young people The Annomite’s Revenge (with Fred Sedgwick), published by Tricky Sam Enterprises, Ipswich. He was President of The Poetry Society 1972-74 and editor and printer of the Priapus Press, 1967-90.
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