The God of Vexation
When Neptune was courting
Scooped up the Atlantic
And bestowed it on Norfolk,
Long before you and I were born.
The quickening Wales survived,
and the red-heathered glens of Scotland,
albeit biparted. There is a new lagoon
Which stretches from Cumberland
To the kings of Northumberland
Who vandalise shops where they can.
In a hundred awful years or more
Sightseers and tourists
Walking the shoreline,
Buying mementos and keepsake-gifts,
Will laugh at preposterous legends
Of villages consumed by the water.
Today is all I claim to own,
A universe condensed.

A canvas harried by the gale
From the patio table’s circumference,
In that moment morphed
Into an airborne octopus
Or other tentacled fabulous beast;
Flew over the poet-advocate’s garden,
And beyond his neighbour’s fence.