JEALOUS JOSEPHINE
"Not tonight, Josephine,"
often had said Napoleon.
She showed such jealousy.
Europa he'd his eye on.
Yes Josephine showed her jealousy
and all-out war's sure a woman's fury !
JUST-A-REAL-SALTY-OLD-JACK-TAR'S-
CONSTANTLY-YOUNG-WOMAN
Mermaid tatoo on his arm,
she goes with him everywhere.
Shares his bunkbed every night,
is his breath of fresh sea air.
He wears her like some a charm,
ageless on an ageing arm.
A CAT-O'-NINE CAPTAIN'S
STORMY LAST LASH
Above the whip of the waves
is a ship's black cat
curled up in her captain's lap.
There is no storm now to brave.
The waves whip but do not crack.
Wears the captain an eye-patch.
The cat black as an african slave.
Slaves no more feel the lash
on a ship that's of the past.
A ship that met a watery-grave.
No crew, no slaves does she boast.
The cat, the captain, the ship a ghost.
A FAR-OFF FOREIGN TONGUE-TIER
The elephant farm was up-the-road
and the crocodile farm farther-down.
I was living in Pattaya City
on the edge of that large town.
A Pattay lady would visit me
to learn my English tongue.
No Yorkshire vernacular,
no words like brang or brung.
Khow, plah, moo, nam she'd bring
and give the thankful sawadee.
I'd then spend the evenings
drinking sake by the Siam sea.
About my condo were palm trees.
A moon red as it was round -
red as the Eastern dragon -
would sometimes look on down.
Above the morn's swimming-pool
a purply-blue dragonfly
would hover in the sunlight
and lizards quicken on by.
Yes a Pattay lady would visit me
to learn my English tongue.
Was I paid with tongue-kisses?
You may not be that far wrong !
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