Little Men
What is an uptown man but a blurt
chinny chin chin
but a plea chinny chin chin
tenderised by this rickety peace he’s living in
This peace that hangs as poison fruit in the tree tree trees
Three little men
dot dot dot
I’ll blow your top in
I’ll rasher you streaky
I’ll nosh your little house right off with my to-attention teeth
Rows of soldiers
hid for now behind the plump hedges of their come-hithers
What type of king is making the roof go down little men
What kind of king ra ra ra
Chinny chin chin
chinny chin
dot dot dot
L-L-Let me in
For ever and ever
What do you want chief
with your
woebegone like a catchall
Do you take me for a spectacle
Or Elephantine Or Squished
Or ears like halleluiahbubble
pip pip
I hear you
Our father who art squished
Fish come up to eat
the la la flies
as dogs go down
to chop the dirty
Forgive me my respite
My kingdom has holes in it
The opposites of sausages
Am I made of lemons
Did you like me for a chirrup
O what is your purpose soldier boy on the edge of there in your C-Crimean c-costume
Trees about
And that d-lady dressed in whitely robes –
a-floating ghostling
Easy-peasy I am knocked together
bottle glue
corrugated cardboard
down whose pokey corridors: all sorts of not a lot
I am one I made earlier
The soldier has nothing for here and so bangs off on no I don’t care and you too
(to the monotonous beat of the humdrum)
A little bit this A little bit that
Don’t try stay with me
for I will stay with d-lady
This carpet has marvellous spots
The stripy one not so much
And there we must leave us and everything about to go boom
______________
Mark Waldron’s fourth collection, 'Sweet, like Rinky-Dink' was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2019. He was selected as a Next Generation Poet by the Poetry Book Society in 2014.
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