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| SAMPLE
POEMS |
NOT THE ONE O’CLOCK NEWS
Good afternoon;
There is no news today.
Nobody’s declared war,
Nobody’s on strike
Nobody’s been raped, robbed or murdered.
There is no crisis on the Stock Exchange.
No bombs are falling on Afghanistan.
No children are starving in Africa.
The Taliban are drinking tea with the Quakers;
Hamas are shopping for bagels down Golders Green;
And all the coppers in Brixton
Are stoned out of their minds on skunk and reggae.
There is no news today -
Sorry!
Normal service will be resumed tomorrow.
SILENT NIGHT
I will not speak to you tonight:
I will not even pronounce your name
as I step across the threshold of your room.
I will not speak to you:
I will remove my clothes in silence
and let them lie quietly on the carpet
beside the coffee-stained pages of your unfinished poems.
I will not speak to you:
I will lie silently between your unironed sheets
beside your undamaged body.
I will only open my mouth for your kisses.
I will not speak to you:
I will accept a cigarette and smoke it in silence
before I resume my discarded quiet clothes.
I will only nod my head when you say “See you on Monday?”
and close your door behind me noiselessly.
I will not speak to you:
I cannot say the words you want to hear,
and, because you are my friend,
I will not tell you loving lies.
I will not speak to you tonight.
A STRANGE DAY IN SUSSEX
As I was enjoying my first cup of coffee,
an elderly lady in a straw hat trimmed with flowers
strolled past my living-room window
and we exchanged smiles.
It was not until some time later,
whilst preparing lunch, that I recollected
that my flat is on the seventeenth floor.
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