Long Underwear and Hot Water Bottles vs. Mills and Boon

Long Underwear and Hot Water Bottles vs. Mills and Boon

Those things we take for granted like the greens

Surrounding us in Windsor, greyish clouds,

Our waking up, and toast and tea routines,

The tastelessness of Tuesday shopping crowds

On Oxford Street the week before Christmas,

The news at six o’clock with little beeps,

The furred tip  in twitching on the isthmus

Of the tail across your lap as he sleeps

Before aroused in purring, and the bland

Vanilla phrases in her words the Queen

Delivers, the Salvation Army band,

And Brussels sprouts, and turkey leg cuisine,

These things are more essential than the frills

We rarely get, passion’s pangs, tinsel thrills.