1From playboy Chance the nymph no longer flees
2when masons clutch the breath we held on loan
3old corned-beef’s rusty armour spreads disease
4with cherry-pips his cottage floor is sown

5And yet ’twas he the beggar Fate just flings
6whose ocean still-born herrings madly brave
7th’outrageous Thames a troubled arrow slings
8as sleeping-bags the silent landscape pave

9The genealogist with field and fess
10what things we did we went the whole darned hog
11from cool Parnassus down to wild Loch Ness

12Southern baroque’s seductive dialogue
13where no one bothered how one warmed one’s bum
14they’re kings we’re mammal-cousins hi ho hum