(No.57 of my favourite short poems)
After the Lunch
On Waterloo Bridge, where we said our goodbyes,
the weather conditions bring tears to my eyes.
I wipe them away with a black woolly glove
And try not to notice I’ve fallen in love.
On Waterloo Bridge I am trying to think:
This is nothing. you’re high on the charm and the drink.
But the juke-box inside me is playing a song
That says something different. And when was it wrong?
On Waterloo Bridge with the wind in my hair
I am tempted to skip. You’re a fool. I don’t care.
the head does its best but the heart is the boss-
I admit it before I am halfway across.
Wendy Cope
Wendy Cope is one of the most acclaimed living comic poets writing in English. She was raised in Kent, England and has published several volumes of poetry including Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis and Serious Concerns. Cope possesses a remarkable talent for parody and for using humour to address serious topics.
She has a keen eye for the everyday, mundane aspects of English life, especially the desires, frustrations, hopes, confusions and emotions in intimate relationships. Dr Rowan Williams, the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, and a poet himself, has written that: “Wendy Cope is without doubt the wittiest of contemporary English poets, and says a lot of extremely serious things”.
Notes adapted from Wikipedia and other online sources.
Roland's Ragbag 