Sex and Ageing: Women Are From Venus, Men Are From Deep-Fried Mars
This Is Important To Her
“I’ve got no time for those women who say they’d rather just cuddle, or have a nice cup of tea, I refuse to grow old like that, I still desire good, healthy satisfying sex.” (Liv Ullman)
She does not wish to leave the banquet of the senses just yet;
that she is still desirable requires confirmation
from a younger man becoming hard in her bed,
coming incontinently inside her, once she is sated,
ready for his spilling.
Her women friends are snagged in grey cobwebs:
“Curmudgeonly Old Bastards With Empty Balls”,
she smiles.
Taking a lover comes at a price for her:
she needs to know that he is also desirable to others,
that in her arms and between her thighs lies a prize.
So she casts a calm eye on his infidelities:
as long as her breasts still feel an urgency in his hands,
his mouth,
she will keep her place at the life-giving table.
The Nursery Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner
“Some poems capture a moment, other poems are prophecies” (Don Paterson)
What good is a bed if not for the banquet of the senses,
sighing with surfeit of rich pleasures given and received?
Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat,
please put a penny in the old man’s hat.
If you haven’t got a penny, a halfpenny will do,
if you haven’t got a halfpenny, God bless you!
Now my bed is a hiding place from mirror-glimpse:
this wedding tackle become divorce tackle.
Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat,
please put some oysters in the old man’s hat.
If you haven’t got some oysters, Viagra will do,
if you haven’t got Viagra, God help you!
I wonder who is on duty tonight. The Smiling Eyed One?
Filling my plate with memories, I classify her skin.
Christmas is coming and the table’s just a wreck,
please put a noose around the old man’s neck.
If you haven’t got a noose, an albatross will do,
if you haven’t got an albatross, God help you!