'Choices' and Other Poems

Choices

Asparagus green and sprouting, or asparagus white and forced?
Wine from grapes grown on granite, or wine from grapes grown in loam?
Hypo- or holo-: which is your favourite caust?
Hippo- or velo-: which is your favourite drome?

Generalissimo Francisco Franco, or Antonio Salazar?
A fair working wage for all, or a six-figure starting salary?
Un coup d'état jamais n'abolira le hasard,
or all the spicier bits of Thomas Malory?

A group of seven magpies: how do you divide it?
Is all that happens fated, or are things down to sheer dumb luck?
Do you open the big red box, or the smaller box inside it?
A hundred duck-sized horses, or a single horse-sized duck?

Sir Christopher or Pigling: which is your favourite Bland?
A book to be read at one sitting, or a book to be read with one hand?



Mad Wife

All that day she screamed and raved, the slightest thing
...