1. CONVENT SCHOOL
The Mother Superior
shamed me;
standing face-to-the-wall
I smelt her musty vestments
as she passed by:
silent but deadly

2. FAMILY WEDDING
Identified by formal dress
the genetically associated
celebrate the extension
of the family tree;
meanwhile, those who
have mixed their bloods
unacknowledged
with all those present
penetrate this pure
monogamous statement,
nudging into memories
with their unashamed winks
whilst now walking
in their civvies
jauntily down Freedom Street

3. RAT RACE
London rush hour;
he fell backwards
thirty feet or so
down an up-escalator.
Totally ignored
people just stepped over
his splayed body,
continued resolutely ascending
as if heaven anxiously awaited.
I felt lucky to be at the top
and to be ahead of this queue -
of rats

4. SOME MISTAKE?
We stared dismally down
into my father's open grave:
the funeral of a man
we collectively had never known.
"I should have divorced you
thirty years' ago", my mother said.
Confusion filled my heart -
I was only twenty-one

5. COUNTRY IDYLL
Eight-months pregnant
and accompanied by our three-year old
we took a leisurely stroll
to the village Polling Booth
on that balmy day in May;
Flustered, the genial aficionado
asked if I was, in fact,
an inexperienced first-time voter

6. HOME
Seventeen years in the same place;
four smiling adults
now welcome visitors
but these puzzle over
the walls of our frig,
as yet still bedecked
with precious crayoned
childhood drawings.
Things move too fast here
to worry about
keeping up with the times

7. TAKING PRECAUTIONS
We struggled again
through the weekend
without Durex;
it was hard
but it added imagination
to our love life

8. LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR
She stood in her blue boilersuit
at the foot of his ladder
whilst high above her head
he tinkered away at the guttering.
She smiled her usual smile -
"Our life is so organised;
how come yours is such a mess?"

9. SUBTERRANEAN CAR PARK
The quaint old lady and I
became firm friends
in the space of time it takes
for the lift to descend two floors;
she emptied her purse
and gave me the change
for my parking ticket.
Thus I passively mugged her,
left her hostage to the
non credit-taking machine:
Friend indeed!

10. ANOTHER PLANET
Our best friends make their getaway;
sealed within their aerodynamic sports car
they wave at us like departing astronauts
and space is now between us.
All we are left with
is the two-fingered salute
of their twin exhausts
as we melt in the wake
of their after-burn