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Poetry
POEMOTIONS
Text of book
Part Seven (continued)
Heterosexual Love - Doubt
Start of page 171 in the book
Truth Taker
An uncouth youth
took away the truth
that once on a time lay between us
His touch was rough
and tough enough
to scrape the surface smoothness
and dip to depths we could not reach
when there were just the two of us
Was he the agent of some Power
divine or diabolical
or just the fancy of an hour
a spirit phantasmagorical?
And anyway, now he has gone
is that the thought to conjure with
or should we press
deep in the leaves
seeking the earth
And hope for a rebirth?
Start of page 172 in the book
My Airy Flute
Though at first you burnished my silver,
furnished evidence
of permanence -
proof that some metals are pure -
that could not endure.
I needed more, the absolute;
absurd demand, you, convolute
rebuked my crude demand: astute
danced delicate around my airy flute -
ignoring its truth.
Mute now, my airy flute:
only created to mark joy -
important joy, not trivial.
Dismally you failed to sense
this wasn't just about incense
Or other trivial scents or smells:
and you stamped down on my airy flute,
shutting off its slight tinny music -
and what was far worse,
squashing it out of shape.
So that it could never play again.
Start of page 173 in the book
On Two Girl Hill
I walked my chicken, but she turned chill
scented new love, would not be still -
upbraided me, accusing, shrill:
eclipsed the moon on Two Girl Hill.
Her violet eyes glare through the gloom,
seeking the rival for her Groom;
the wedding-veil wilts in her room
our son dies slowly in her womb.
I and my other love last night
walked the same hill, by the same light.
Quietly I watched the eagle's flight
on glorious wings soar from my sight.
Now my small chicken talks cool to me,
takes down her heart from the willow tree,
walks away as the thought swings free -
that love can die of jealousy.
So what if it does, on Two-Girl Hill,
the chicken is there, but the eagle soars,
my soul lies still, but my spirit roars:
you can gain your fill on Two Girl Hill.
Start of page 174 in the book
Al, Kingers and Pepys
I
All down the centuries, men are the same.
Yet are they to blame
for behaving as men are programmed to do?
But are they really all the same?
Do not some of these creatures
try their very best to behave decently with women?
Do they not sometimes succeed,
at least for some of the time,
in behaving properly towards their hapless loved ones?
II
You will level against me Al,
known as Alan Clark of the diaries,
late Tory Minister for Bongo-Bongo land.
Even on his deathbed this creature
tortured his poor loyal wife Jane
with lust for a woman he would only call X.
Was Jane right to mind -
or does Al's sex with those others matter little
in the terms of a lifetime engagement?
III
Kingsley first loved Hilly
and quickly made her pregnant.
For a while he was loyal to his young wife.
Start of page
175 in the book
During her second pregnancy Kingers got impatient
and went wandering around with,
even dipping, his urgent stiff object.
All down the centuries, men are the same.
And women must put up with it -
which Hilly did for a while.
IV
It's been going on for ages.
Samuel Pepys, secretary of the Admiralty,
did it all the time.
We know that because, in earlier diaries,
he told us so in detail.
His wife had blazing rows with him.
In the end she put up with it
just like Jane and Hilly did later.
But still they didn't think it right.
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