Peter (Prof) Fox

The populace went to the polls
It was May and their hearts were all light
They would kick out all the old crooks
The new lot would make everything right
...

What does the cracking of ice cubes mean to a rifleman sat in a pub?
Nothing! That's what. It's another man's life out there waiting alone in the mud.
And what does a drip down the neck mean to a rifleman prone in a scrape?
A tickle reminds him of fear creeping in under the cape.
...

...

By Billy Birdbath

I wandered lonely as a clown
That vaults on high for children's thrills
...

A journey that's made for the last time
Is poignant with thoughts of time past
Of people of moments of pictures
Sad to think this time is the last
...

Note: The blurb for G.A. Evan's book 'Poems with prefaces for Padstow, Petersfield, Poland and Pewsham' says he is 'hailed as the new Betjeman'

The gas was on in the Institute,
The light was on in the shack,
...

I'm new to this sort of thing
there's lots to carry and bring.
I've got some brass tacks for the sails
And a flap for the cat-o-nine-tails
...

Shall I compare thee to a lump of clay
Thou art more stupid and more ignorant
Tough skin do shape your hollow cheeks of grey
And mummer's grease no youth shall grant
...

The ploughboy plods behind his horse
To keep the ploughshare in its course
The sun and rain draw up the grain
What is buried will rise again
...

Fred and Nemo don't go far, they have nowhere to go.
They're stuck inside the paddock trotting to and fro.
'Till one day they got fed up and started off the show:
It's a day we all remember: - The Broads Green Rodeo.
...

I went to the shopkeepers and asked them for courage
They said they didn't supply it
(Shame they don't know where it comes from.)
So they couldn't help me.
...

I need young men the window said
I need a man who's fit and strong
Who'll fire me up and drive me wrong
A motorcycle chromed to shine
...

Title: A true relation of a horrid MURDER committed upon the person of Thomas Kidderminster at the White Horse Inn in Chelmsford in the County of Essex in the month of April 1654

It was in the year of '54
Foul murder did occur
...

In the week I work in an office
Shuffling paper and fiddling with pens
It's really incredibly boring
I can't wait 'til it gets to weekends
...

Note. Anatole Mallet was a railway engine builder specialising in articulated locomotives. Coming from Switzerland his name is properly pronounced to rhyme with 'ballet' but in the US and to some extent elsewhere it is pronounced as spelt. A 'Garratt' (rhymes with carrot) is another form of articulated locomotive with a 'top half' (cab and boiler) slung between two 'bottoms' (cylinders and wheels) .

A Swiss engine builder named Mallet
Took a boat to Dover from Callet
...

...

About those daily papers that print the horoscopes
Those silly bits of nonsense they print for simple folks
I've often wondered why, but have no answer I'll confess,
Why do they print all twelve of them when they should print one less.
...

Awoken by a noise in the night
the poet wonders:
Is there malice abroad?
Is it coming, or going, or real?
...

Who hollowed out the pumpkin and carved a silly face
Who scooped out all the seeds and left a glimmer in its place
The japes of Halloween are bravado cloaking fear
There's not much levity, for tonight's the reckoning of the year
...

Times are hard, we're down to our last au pair.
We can't afford a chauffeur and the yacht needs some repair.
What will the neighbours think if the BMW 's last year's?
It's the children I feel sorry for, when they come home full of tears,
...