Five Poems

Reconstructive Fortressing

'Nowadays, specialist knickers, tights, all-in-ones and bras are industrially
enhanced for the sole purpose of improving our shape in the same way
corsets did in the 19th century.'
                                       Trinny and Susannah, What you Wear can Change your Life

They were moving about the rooms, two men.
My daughter said, I don't want to live with them.
No, no, I said, they will live here alone
if they buy our place. We will have gone.
Do you remember that large patch of green
I called the country? That's where we will be.

I've been wearing this flat for far too long.
It's dark though I've accessorised it in turquoise.
It works best when my skin is palest in winter.
In summer it makes me look tacky. I am ready
to invest in a house as well-fitted as a bra,
...