To Lighten Midnight
She fires her inquisitorial stare
slashing my net curtain
of half-truths
pronounces me guilty
with a landlady's spite
she has the stone breaker’s arms
the goose step thighs
and hurls my verbals
into the gutter
turning my night bruising to pimples
and my excuses to a stutter
your husband is the factory inspector
a dependable sort of chap
whilst you Mrs Jankowski
screw your tenants for every cent
itching for their scandal
from your trig point
I will square up to you Mrs Jankowski
I will fit the frame
of your drunken hung dog
and I’m certainly out of line
your broom bristles brush me
and your magisterial mouth
orders me
to be out by nine
slashing my net curtain
of half-truths
pronounces me guilty
with a landlady's spite
she has the stone breaker’s arms
the goose step thighs
and hurls my verbals
into the gutter
turning my night bruising to pimples
and my excuses to a stutter
your husband is the factory inspector
a dependable sort of chap
whilst you Mrs Jankowski
screw your tenants for every cent
itching for their scandal
from your trig point
I will square up to you Mrs Jankowski
I will fit the frame
of your drunken hung dog
and I’m certainly out of line
your broom bristles brush me
and your magisterial mouth
orders me
to be out by nine
Page(s) 40
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