London Loves.....Love

Picture courtesy Nick Boyce 2009

When a barn owl builds her nest, that is love
She may expel, orally, a crushed chewy mouse
But her love is mostly internalised
Transmitted momentarily in acts of regurgitation
Not a soft or fluffy love
But love all the same
Love at the coal face

A rain has come in the dead of night
It batters down the roses
Threatens cobwebs affixed upon streetlights
In the commuter belt long legged Susan stirs at 2am
Reaches for Apple
But not nutritious or vitamin packed
She pines for Alexander at a conference in Frankfurt
Romantic machinery
Digital love

Mrs O'Doherty sobs increasingly
Where is my daughter?
She ponders internally
How have I lost her?
Who is Ricardo?
My purpose of rearing has come to an end
Love enduring
Affection paused

Lily works Sundays at the hall of mirrors
Trapped on the pier
Walton-on-the-naze
Bored and deceitful, caring and boastful
She loves 6 or 7 in every 10 male customers
But they love her boss
Despairing, she jumps in the Channel
Just for a swim
Who loves the North Sea?
Only the fishermen (6 or 7 in every 10)

Harry chops cows up
“It’s all done electric now”
40 or 50 cattle per day
Rumps and shoulders
Hooves and brains
Eyes no longer seeing
Ears fallen deaf
The milk of human kindness
Harry does not love anybody
He has a list of people he hates

Abdul Aziz paints his girlfriend’s outline
His cleric has told him God does not like images of the human form
Abdul loves his girlfriend’s bottom
And her vagina
And the way her legs taper from hip to ankle like a rounded obelisk
“How can God not love this?” he blasphemes
His girlfriend sometimes wears a veil
Hidden love

When a badger is killed by a farmer and lies unmoving in a ditch
Its cub nuzzles up to it
It does not know yet
That is undying love