ANNE McKERROW

 

BOLD AS LOVE

 

Bold as love, netting the fat diamond millionaire

(Fleshy between the webbing, thinning hair)

Quick, foxy eyes, guttering reproofs

Feet swinging above the floor on your swivel chair

A glossy-girl top-knot in your oriental hair.

 

Cristalle, baubles; husband sweats on improving runs

Beauty among the office girls

Swishing her hair back to laugh

She shoots, she scores, she stuns;

 

I saw you on the communal roofs, roosting among the

nightingales

No slap; pinched in the cold.

You looked old. You looked defenselessly open; one

hand dangling a cigarette.

 

Silver like blood, platinum even

Just to show them, nouveau riche heaven

Snaps at the heeling pup, her chubby husband behind

But he turns, he strays, he finds

Soft, sympathetic, submissive ears to bend elsewhere.

Is he henpecked? Mend your ways, Miss Sweeney

He may slip as you sip your martini, and

The gravy train rolls past with a fixed, forward

stare.

 

 

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SENTINEL POETRY (ONLINE) #30, MAY 2005. ISSN 1479-425X