LULLABEATLES

for EMA

1.

Rock-a-bye Lucy,
a boat on a river,
tangerine trees,
marshmallow pies.

Cellophane flowers,
kaleidoscope eyes,
diamonds with Lucy
marmalade skies.

2.

Hush little egg-man
don't you cry,
you'll be a walrus
before you die.

And if those pigs
can't run from guns,
we'll kick Edgar Poe
for fun.

3.

Diddle-diddle Desmond
market trolly
went to bed
with market Molly

Life goes on
and life goes on,
Obla-Desmond
Obla-Molly

4.

Twinkle, twinkle, understand
how I wanna hold your hand.
Such a feeling I can't hide
feeling happiness inside.
Twinkle, twinkle, be your man.
How I wanna hold your hand.

THE ROBOT SHOWS ITS WORKING

or HOW THE ROBOT CAME TO LOVE THE ROBOT

for AA

01001001
00100000
01101100
01101111
01110110
01100101
00100000
01111001
01101111
01110101

THE ROBOT DECLARES ITS LOVE

for AA

You I You You I You You I
You You I You You You You You
You I I You I I You You
You I I You I I I I
You I I I You I I You
You I I You You I You I
You You I You You You You You
You I I I I You You I
You I I You I I I I
You I I I You I You I 

IN THE FRENCH

for AA

horse/hair
slippers/sausage
Cinderella/ashtray

FOR AMY AUDEBERT, WHEREVER I MAY FIND HER

for AA

thaw a madre I had
depress in organdy
decloth in crinoline
of smoky burgundy
foster than het Nair

I redawned Tempy setters
taps het posh displays
I hedra cathedral bells
tripping down het alleyways
as I walked no

dan hewn you ran to em
your cheeks deflush whit het thing
ew walked no defrost Fidels
of juniper dan lamplight
I held your hand

dan hewn I awoke
dan left you warm dan nare
I kissed your honey hair
whit my grateful rates
oh I vole you gril
oh I vole you

HOTLOOKED

for AA and JW

merged many contacts
first name shared
brother, for example
personalitied Facebook user

first name shared
has three jobs
personalitied Facebook user
in two countries

has three jobs
and six emails
in two countries
Thank you Microsoft

and six emails
four telephone numbers
Thank you Microsoft
become a three

four telephone numbers
headed, many legged
become a three
The forced switchover 

headed, many legged
brother, for example
The forced switchover
merged many contacts

SNOW HUNT

for AA

I realised the pheasant tracks were crazier

than how I'd stepped. They riduculed the snow

with flight attempts and panic. My husband

and I walked with crooked arms, shotguns

slung over our elpits like footballer's wives

did handbags. We had banned mobile phones.

Somehow a shot has sprung me; see my fleck

upon the virginal and the dead carcass.

SIAMESE

for AA

two tails
heads rolled from a neck
turned fur into six
eight four legs
heads two three eyes
blended two four
bellies and backs
reticulating arched single
spine splits a helix
under pelt
fur fur entwined

ODE TO THE ANTIQUE WASHSTAND IN THE GUEST BEDROOM

for AA

A Playstation One,
golf balls, Nokia 6210,
two condoms, a sewing kit,
the seventh Harry Potter novel,
two credit cards, an ethernet cable,
about £2.50 in sterling and Euros,
travel Jenga, From Russia With Love on DVD
and twenty million safety pins.

TRANSCIENCE FICTIONORMATIONS

for AA

Aminotranscience fictionerases catalysed an unexpected
moment of miscience fictionielding on the crease
in the Nottinghamshire town of Manscience fictionield.

Jarscience fictionul of cider consumed before playing
were blamed for the dyscience fictionunctional wicketkeeper's
sudden lurch left at a right swinging miscience fictionire.

The townscience fictionolk were flabbergasted the bowler's
miscience fictionortunate slip of the finger had spilled
satiscience fictionyingly long for a bye for the batters.

Later the club patrescience fictionamilias were fretful
as doctors at Nottingham General transcience fictionused,
triggering biotranscience fictionormations in the suffering flesh.

LOOKING AT BEDROOMS

for AA

When I was very small,
small enough to have a teddy,
a teddy made by my uncle,
my uncle who went to prison,
I remember the white prison bars 
of my cot, and beyond them 
the orange billowing curtains 
in a very small room
in a very small chalet
in a very small seaside town.

When I was up and walking,
say I was three or four, maybe older, 
I was a very late walker,
I remember I slept in a room
between a bathroom and attic stair
on a bottom bunk beneath my sister,
and the room was so small
that all I remember
was the bathroom was avocado.

When we moved house,
when I was five or six or seven,
I got my own room.
It was a small room
that housed tank engines
and robots and Millenium Falcons.
One day we took the chimney out
and made it a square foot bigger.
Then I moved out.

My bedrooms at university
grew progressively bigger
until I inhabited an entire extension
with its own sink and coffee machine
and a wide blue carpet.

The curve continued 
from doubles to king sized beds,
first, second and third floor attics,
to skylights that stare out over the rooftops
and let the breezes in over the pillows,
cooling the red linen
and all the time getting larger
until it will become a loft conversion apartment.

But when I am older I expect
to open a white door onto a single bed
under a re-inforced glass window.
I expect I'll be helped
the three short shuffled steps
over the beige berber to the bar
that the nurse will lower
before tipping me in.
In the night, I expect I will wake
and feel the high walls closing in
and see the moon cast it's ocean shadows.

*The image is not a bedroom I have ever lived in, but it did inspire the poem. Thanks to Amy Audebert for allowing its use.