There is Nothing Like a Dame—

and there is no dame like a building society or a bank!

Original Text

Rosemarie Rowley, In Memory of Her (Dublin: Rowan Tree Press, 2004): 37.

2the world would have gone to hell but for organised sex—

3if boys and girls were left to nature's provenance,

4a person like me would be nowhere at all.

5Oh, I know how to milk attraction

6and stabilise what is essentially of short duration:

7if boys and girls were left to innocence

8there'd be no delighting old men.

9If that sounds unfair, I didn't make the rules—

10all this spontaneity leaves everyone very poor,

11the Church, the magistrates and the building societies

12are all depending on the regulation of love.

13It's the people who won't smile who bother me,

1] "The title occurs in the musical South Pacific by Rogers and Hammerstein" (poet's note). Back to Line

14] hard fitted: "Patrick Kavanagh's mother's words for the faint of heart" (poet's note). Back to Line

RPO poem Editors

Ian Lancashire

RPO Edition

2007

Rhyme

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