What must you do to get it right?
Love God & love your neighbour. That's all.
...
Angled unnaturally in the chair,
wild hair on the wings of his scalp,
the Headmaster stares at the camera
as if to threaten it for daring
...
Prisoner and escort
glide into the rooftop station,
as train wheels screech
with sympathy against the check-rails.
...
Like
a Red Admiral without a fleet,
a Painted Lady out of lippy,
...
The census: successful Southport spinster,
nursing sister, touching 40.
The inheritance: left by your aunt
let down by her lover,
...
I let you go into the world,
launched with a kiss from my body's lips;
the cord was cut by alien hands,
and you were part of me no longer,
...
After all these years
will I recognise you now?
You burst through the crowd,
this stranger, my flesh and blood,
...
Bloody French drivers never use their indicators.
Roundabouts go the wrong bloody way.
All the bloody placenames sound bloody foreign,
and the brakes in the back aren't working.
...
The tide comes higher, smoothing out the shore.
It crumbles shell-capped fortresses with ease;
the past day's footprints, scrawled obscenities
and lovers' names are lost for evermore.
...
How dim are the dim sum?
Are they just dim at sums
so those who fail their maths exam
...