No longer are the British smelling pure
Deodorants aren’t selling like before
We decided to save our money for the drink
Why clean your teeth when your whole body stinks?

Toothbrushes and combs had some allure
Men might fancy women,fair,demure.
Women don’t like men who sweat and smell
Man made fibres don’t absorb so well

But now we sweat and pong in our velour
Our teeth are yellow. broken,gnashed with fear
Underneath our arms and all below
Our odour is now going with the flow

Yet the shops are selling rubber sheaths
Morning after pills with mourning wreaths
The natural smell of others turns us on
Save the soap and water, love is come

The Value Added Tax is going up
Women exchange tampons for small cups
They see their blood and do not want to pay
For products that are taxed in nasty ways

Maybe we should let our blood flow free
Climbing outside naked on a tree

I put on my new lipstick to show my husband who said:
Congratulations, you have found some lipstick exactly the same colour as your own lips

I said on going out: I forgot to comb my hair,he said
It doesn’t make any difference.

He went so fast on the North Circular I finally learned how to fasten my seatbelt
But was that kind of him?

I myself could only drive at 90 mph so I gave up before I killed someone

I went into Boots to buy some Foundation.A lady came up to me saying she didn’t like her complxion
and what did I have on, because that’s what she wanted for herself!
Then at the bus stop someone asked me the name of my lipstick
As I wore none,I felt embarrassed.I should have invented a name

However with time passing and Lockdown I no longer get any compliments
But it seems in the wider world women are having troubles with males acting badly

I have never wanted to despise
Never wished to make you feel ashamed
Never by a hard look you maraud
I have never wanted to deride
I have known what your looks signified
I have seen the shadows of your eyes
Never made you feel you were to blame
I have never wanted to degrade
Never wished to make you feel the shame

Homesick for the ones I did not like
Feeling out of place,pushed to one side
Wanting to escape this painful life
Homesick for the ones I did not like
Fearful of the anger and the strikes
Wishing to give love but not to break
Harder still to think and to decide
Homesick for the ones I did not like
Feeling out of place,unwanted bride

Love (III) BY GEORGE HERBERT

Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back
                              Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
                             From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
                             If I lacked any thing.

A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:
                             Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,
                             I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
                             Who made the eyes but I?

Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame
                             Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
                             My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:
                             So I did sit and eat.
Source: George Herbert and the Seventeenth-Century Religious Poets  (W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1978)

We are in  our boat together
Sailing across the bay.
Some have an easy voyage,
The wind is blowing their way.
I wish I could always be sailing
Across a wide ocean with you
And never reach the other side
though it may be in view.
I want to see the sunrise
Across the dappled sea.
The ripples of the water
Reveal a new world to me.
One day this boat will reach the shore
Unless destroyed by storm
And I shall have to leave your arms
Where I have been so warm.
So just before we get there
I wanted you to know
That I shall always love you
No matter where you go

Is your glowing face a map?
are your tender ways a map?
what is not a map?
Is your open smile a map?
Is your deepest groan a map?
what is not a map?
Is my  too sharp touch a map?
Is my too quick glance a map?
what is not a map?

Is this sea green leaf a map,
Is this light red flower a map?
What sort of map is that?
Is the evening sky a map,
Is the silver moon a map?
Of what is that a map?
Is this entire world a map?
Is the sun-soaked sky a map?
Is this tiny child a map?

think I am a map.
Who can learn to read these maps?
Without love we can’t perceive;
Who can teach us how to see?

Can we look beyond the Map?
Can we look into the gap?
Whatever Love perceives
What Love can we receive?