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This poem is taken from PN Review 162, Volume 31 Number 4, March - April 2005.

Three Poems Dannie Abse

Champagne Occasions

Here Comes the Bride

The pregnant bride's a banker's daughter,
the groom's unemployed, an unpublished poet,
and as the banker observes his daughter
swollen in the whiteness of a swan
he wishes they would play raging Wagner
not this bland melody by Mendelssohn.

Xmas

The father in a paper hat looks asinine,
the mother in the kitchen works overtime.
Their small son spills blancmange on my lap,
their small daughter screams too loud in my ear.
Pull your own bloody cracker, I'm
fed up with the ordeal of Xmas.
Scrooge was ahead of his time.

80th Birthday Party
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