What Have I Come To? Poem by Simon M Hunter

for 伍 麗 芬

Canton - Hong Kong

May is the hungry month; it breeds
Mosquitoes out of the damp ground
Miss Mm’s above me, and she feeds
My lonely needs by coming down

The tarry river slicks uneasily
Greasy bubbles belch into brothy air
The furnace slag floats on melted futures
And bleary crowds stare hard to leeward there

One date city, but he's uncowed
Naughty Katie talks long and loud
Calls a lover during dinner
Hosted by another with her

Suffolk

What have I come to?
So few, I had not thought life had made so few
Walking in widening spaces

A crumpled pillbox, pushed over
The crumbled cliff it threw over
Feeding Grimgaunt's grey-green maw
Gnawed bones breaking awash the shore

The Asperger's boy grinds pepper on the floor
You cannot reach him, sugar addict; his pills
His unsweet selfishness unmind you
He laughs at the bright, cracked mirror
'Look there in the smeary mirror'
See the true reflection of you

The rusty bells of Dunwich town
Crack mockingly under the sea

South Oxfordshire – London – Europe – summer maze

Johnson's gone to recycle in London
Where night bikers scavenge in Tesco’s bins
A foreign van splutters, starts, blares
'BNP: people like you, ' who
Drive VW. Curry house:
A grumped-up girl says, 'They’ve good policies! '
Ravening to blame on browns their problems
Scoffing their chicken jalfrezis

While in Predappio, ahimé!
Where the sunscowls slant askew they salute still