How dull a woman's body is compared

to all the gorgeous finery she wears -

clothes in their infinite variety,

shoes, hats and gloves, scarves, handbags, jewellery,

perfumes and painted nails, coiffured hair

and make-up enough to make men stare.

So how would merely being nude attract

as much attention as when dressed ? In fact

how could the monotone of naked flesh,

whether firm or flabby, wrinkled or fresh

yet offer anything clothed beauty lacked?

Anticipation of the sexual act !

In those societies where nakedness

is normal, only youthful shapeliness

might raise excitement; older nudity

tends to sag and wobble apology.

Without an invitation to intercourse

most female bodies fail to impress.

Marriage is also nakedness, revealing

character more than body, concealing

only his fantasies. Ladies, mark you,

without the challenge of conquest or taboo

the lure of novelty will tempt him to cheating.

it's not your body but companionship that keeps him

FREE DELIVERY TV AD

It isn't exactly Newspeak

(1984 and all that)

but it may attempt to disguise the fact

that the item's delivery cost is probably

included in the price already.

Shall we just call it Adspeak ?

DIMENSIONAL

Only humans are three dimensional;

other creatures have just the one

living in the present only

without the past and future to come.

Isaac Newton at the disco

While unlucky unlovelies grieve together

and clumsy clowns act fools for some attention;

while undulating women play at sirens,

stirring the limpid air with waving arms,

. . . I seem to have been . . . playing on the sea-shore

. . . now and then finding . . . a prettier shell than ordinary

PRECARIOUS

Strawed, half full and perched on the corner

of a table bearing assorted jumble

of hats and coats and even handbags,

it needed only the slightest fumble

of passing drunks to be knocked off,

fall on the floor and instantly crumble

to glassy fragments. The disco crowd

included some men in the interval mumble

strutting and grappling right beside it.

If any of them chanced to stumble

against the table, it must fall off.

And yet it survived until the humble

bar girl took it away as dead -

the lucky tumbler that didn't tumble.

I went to brush away down on the wall

a piece of debris, I don't know what -

some bit of fabric, some wool ball

but before I could touch it I suddenly got

a shock when a largish spider appeared

beside the thing as  if out of nowhere.

Now I quite like spiders; they're not to be feared

though I know they give some folks a scare

so I didn't do it any harm at all

and assume it just went back to its nest.

But now I also protect that web ball

and in that corner give the vacuum a rest.

TWEETS 28

 CIVILISATION

Better to be admired for the number of goals you've scored

than for the number of men you've killed.

GIRL

The face of the moon

causing heat of the sun.

PRETTY  WOMEN

I go to the gym and pose

hoping for pretty women;

I go to the disco and carp

watching the pretty women;

I go to the band night to dance

and partner pretty women.

APOSTASY

Itching to get away

I abjured tanning skin

seceded from sun worship.

bar, car, far, jar, mar, par, scar, spar, star . . .

So why war ?

A warm bed on waking

would be something to savour

were it not for the worries

spoiling the flavour.