Four Poems

Saltires

'Where in red is the true red? The original prime colour to which all other reds aspire?


At school I'd hair so red my Australian
English teacher called me 'Bluey!'
And it's that queer logic
Helps you to appreciate
Petitioners of our Parliament
Who wish to regulate
The Saltire's shade of blue.

They look up to crenellated bits:
The pretended family flutter
Of white on blue flagging up
A cloudy sky, aspiring
To the true Idea of ultra-marine,
That Virgin Queen
...