Martin McLean

The foul destroyer of love is deceit.
The lies, the hides, the smiles that break the trust
All founded on that despicable conceit
That treachery is but natrual lust.
...

In the mid-seventies, on board a flight
From Tanga to Dar es Salaam, the seat
Next to me was taken by a woman
With baby. She was dressed unsuitably
...

On my street walk intriguing life stories.
Secrets are revealed in stride and posture.
Those of extreme gait are most emphatic
Yet so mystifying that I could write
...

On the sitting room wall when I was a child
Was a reproduction of the Vermeer
'The Girl with the Pearl Earring'- by then
Not popularised in film and novel.
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(Woman to child)
Sweetheart, sit by me while you eat your food
We must take care of your little body
My child- healthy and happy- is what I desire.
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Memory's deception is tantalising
Especially when it is incomplete.
The blast from an errant V1 Flying
Bomb showered glass, knocking us off our feet.
...