Rosie Shepperd
Coney Island
Under a single spotlight stand a couple of cockatoos –
dancing on a sequinned pillow to Love Me Tender,
Love Me Do; two shows on weekdays, four on a weekend and one
magic summer night, agent to the stars
Johnny Lime, runs into a pair of mermaids right outside the bar.
He gets himself slimy and plastered with green scales,
he kind of looks charbroiled, but sits down just the same.
Real nice he asks, “How d’ya keep this up, day after stinkin’ day?”
“Well, Pearl irons the costumes, I build the scenes.
It’s gotta be fresh, if you know what I mean.
Merl’s out back right now with Miss Porcupine’s golden car.
Tonight the pink mink sisters’ll do Arrows In My Heart.”
Johnny sends a picture postcard from Sunset Boulevard.
“To the greatest show on earth and the summer of ’74!”
Folded, it comes in handy for that gap in the washroom door.
Rosie Shepperd worked in the financial markets for 15 years before studying creative writing at Birkbeck. She started an M Phil at Glamorgan this term and lives in London with her husband and two children.
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