
Porcupines, when making love
Must meet at the right juncture
For, any variation of
Results in acupuncture
light verse and much, much worse

Porcupines, when making love
Must meet at the right juncture
For, any variation of
Results in acupuncture
Should I love you?
Take hold of you?
Our first kiss would be your last
Blood pulsating
Seeping, sating
Taking more than I had asked.
This lifeless life out of the sun
Exiled from God’s own plan
Its beastly feast that’s fit for none
Was not how I began.
Still, you near me
Don’t you fear me?
I can suck you into hell
No
I’ll leave you
Let me grieve you
In that place where monsters dwell
I wouldn’t write whilst drunk
Because those thoughts we’ve sometimes thunk
Mixed with suspicions twice distilled
Much like one’s drink, ought not be spilled
Imagine sitting by a lake
And wondering what it would take
To calculate the area
The formula would scare ya.
Or, fancy while beneath a tree
You’re struck by thoughts of gravity
Quite tough with which to grapple
Whilst snacking on an apple.
Or, say you’re watching tortoises
When what you start to notice is
Through clever adaptation
They’ve dodged annihilation.
Imagine peering into space
Amazed how it all hangs in place
Then arguing dark matter
Might make the cosmos scatter.
Great minds considered these and more
From ancient Greece to Ecuador
This group of geeks is quite well-versed
At sorting out our universe.
What theorem might I devise?
Am I not wise? There is some doubt
For I’ve just only realised
You close the fridge, the light goes out…

Sue sits at her laptop
Pinging emails to herself
Andy’s new ZOOM backdrop
Is a virtual bookshelf
Pete’s touched base with Linked-In
To float this week’s ideation
Debbie’s power-thinking
More proactive penetration.
Management consultants
Hoped that Covid would pay out
Not to be insultant
But such optics are in doubt.
Companies aren’t calling
They’re too strapped to hear advice
How a day’s paint-balling
Might increase their market slice
Or to learn new jargon
To appear that more astute
Not an easy bargain
While you sport a sumo suit.
As employees now head back
(the lucky and the few)
Some consultants need to ask:
What is it that I do?

Half of ladybugs are dudes
Biologists agree
But just so things aren’t misconstrued:
What would their pronouns be?
It’s not just during spring
When Nature has a fling
‘Cause I don’t know one rabbit
Who isn’t always at it

We sent the students home today
And then wrote off the year
Agreeing we would all downplay
The panic and the fear.
The younger ones all whooped and cheered
As soon as they were told
Then out the door they disappeared
To watch events unfold.
The seniors nervously dispersed
First, shell-shocked, then resigned
This endgame they had not rehearsed
Would leave some friends behind.
Worse still, I had no lesson plan
No academic text
No clever quote from some wise man
To say what might come next.

I struggled with this year’s goodbyes
But didn’t let it show
Instead I joked and signed their ties
And let them call me Bro!
Throughout the revelry we knew
The world was not the same
Our balanced lives were now askew
And we were not to blame.
But you can’t keep a good kid down
When they’re up for the fight
And as I watched them rally round
I knew they’d be alright.
The proof came when I reached my car
That’s when my vision blurred
In foam they’d written Au revoir!
Then What’s the French for NERD???

I’ve got two mutts who sniff the butts
Of dogs whom they don’t know
But what is worse and quite perverse
This passes for Hello!
Imagine if we all did this
When meeting someone new
If that’s Hello! I’d like to know
How one would say Adieu!

Prince Harry chose to jet abroad
And start his life anew
Her Majesty had thought it odd
He’d given not a clue.
While chess has always been about
The move that’s unforeseen
No pawn has ever taken out
A well-defended queen.