Poems
by Tony Dawson

 

Message in a Bottle,

 

As I kicked a pebble along the strand,

I saw a bottle floating not far from land

and began humming “Message in a bottle.”

How thrilling if such a thing were true!

It might be from a damsel in distress

or some castaway on a desert island.

Determined to find out, I rolled up my jeans

and waded through the waves to retrieve it.

Clutching the bottle tightly, I struggled

back to shore, excited and expectant.

When I held it up to the light, I could see

it contained a faintly yellow liquid.

Was it urine from Turin or Mississippi pee?

It was then that it occurred to me: the bottle

was an unwritten message tossed away

by a worker exhausted by a bald billionaire.

 

 

 

 

 

In a Rut

 

At dawn, a Yorkshire bar was emptying out.

Some boisterous young lads were laiking about, 

ogling and braying at provocative lasses 

prancing around and showing their arses.

 

In nearby woodland, fallow deer formed a lek,

a rutting display by young bucks at the beck 

and call of oestrous does that decided the fate

of each of the males as they selected a mate.

 

Out in the carpark, each of the lasses decided the fate

of each of the lads, departing at once with her chosen mate.

 

Each doe in the woodland paired off with a buck 

and after a brief chase was cornered and ... mounted.

 

 

Did you know that “Lego” is a combination of two Danish words “leg godt”, which mean “play well”? Furthermore, the Yorkshire dialect word “laik” that means “play around” or “muck about” or something similar derives from it. The word is also connected to the mating displays of male birds and mammals, a “lek”. Paradoxically, often the selection of males is by the females, as is the case of fallow deer. Oestrous does pick the bucks that will produce the best young.

 

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