Two Poems

Glen

Glen who cleans the steamy
used to be a British spy -
she told me
as I waited for my clothes to dry;

this in the early seventies
so we would've been
against the Russians
and Glen stationed at a telex-machine.

But I jump ahead:
before she got to Germany,
she said,
'I lived in France and Italy.

'Born in Nottingham,'
(I'd guess 1953),
'at 19, I worked at a hotel in Paddington.
One New Year's Eve

'I dived into the fountain in
Trafalgar Square, ruined a new coat
given by a friend. I almost died there, shivering
...