WILD ABOUT PETS                PHILIP BURTON

I keep four pets.
I keep my fish in the sea.
I keep my bird in the sky.
I keep my lion in Africa.
I keep my crocodile
            on the other side of The River Nile.

I like my pets
            To be free.


MY DESK                            PHILIP BURTON

I like my desk when the sun slides in
and warms the ink inside my pen.

I like my desk and its thunder clap
and its silences and its tap tap tap.

I like my desk for its woody smell,
its heron legs that ring-a-ding-bell.

I like my desk at reading hour
snug with my book like a bee in a flower.

I like my desk so flat and wide
to rest my picture and paints astride.

I like my desk when home time’s near.
I whisper, Thank you desk, my dear.



                The Old Artwork      PHILIP BURTON

Sunshine has faded the sun and the sea.
A spider web hangs where a pin used to be.
Old Father Time has wrinkled the paper.
The paint has peeled and come off as a wafer.
The cloud in the sky is no longer snow white.
The edge is all waved where a mouse took a bite.

Why is this picture so long on display?
Teacher puts fresher ones round it each day
but this is a painting she’ll never unfix –
a painting she painted when she was aged six.

I hope that when I’m an hundred and three
I’ll treasure a picture painted by me.


>From: grasshopper <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Call for submissions: WORM e-zine 28
>Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 20:50:18 -0000
>
>WORM is a poetry zine distributed by email, then archived permanently on 
>the WORM webpages: www.villarana.freeserve.co.uk/wormhome.htm
>
>The deadline for WORM 28 is 31st March 2004. Please send up to 3 poems, 
>free verse or formal, to:  [log in to unmask]
>in the body of an email, not as an attachment. Previous publication or 
>simultaneous submission are not problems for WORM.
>(NB: Do not send any submissions to The Works List, only to my email 
>address.)
>
>All submissions are forwarded blind to my 2 co-editors and selection is 
>made on the basis of our combined scores. My co-editors for WORM 28 are 
>Charles Cornner.and Sally Evans.
>
>Any questions, just drop me an email. I know Everything.
>Regards,
>Margaret
>(M.A.Griffiths,
>  Resident editor)

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