HANDS UP IF YOU HAVEN'T GOT A JAPANESE GIRLFRIEND
You just about feel Spring, like
valentines hitting
the doormat
and all that.
Those birds are out again.
It’s raining lighters
as they return
what they’ve hoarded over winter.
For a moment,
you’re light.
Pushing round regret
in a supermarket trolley
full of lard.
The air is
twice your lungs.
EVIL FLOWER GIRL
Now there’s
a riot at the Ivory Tower.
The child with the old eyes
doesn’t find Dorothy Parker
the slightest bit funny.
She’d rather hide behind
dark shades and scowl
‘I want to be alone’.
Tuesdays she’s
the Evil Flower Girl,
debating with snails
on her doorstep,
after the rain.
Exhibitionist dwarves
with uncertain fingers
are outside the gates,
waiting.
In the twilight, they look
both malicious and twee.