1At five precisely out went La Marquise
2through snobbish growing round her hemline zone
3old corned-beef’s rusty armour spreads disease
4which neither time nor tide can long postpone

5The frisian Isles my friends are cherised things
6the North Wind Bites into his architrave
7th’outrageous Thames a troubled arrow slings
8as sleeping-bags the silent landscape pave

9Platonic Greece was not so talentless
10shallots and sharks’fins face the smould’ring log
11watching manure and compost coalesce

12We’ll suffocate before the epilogue
13where no one bothered how one warmed one’s bum
14yet from the City’s pie pulled not one plum