John Cooper Clarke

Readers Wives

John Cooper Clarke


Make a date with the brassy brides of britain
The altogether ruder readers' wives
Who put down their needles and their knitting
At the doorway to our dismal daily lives

The fablon top scenarios of passion
Nipples peep through holes in leatherette
They seem to be saying in their fashion
'I'm freezing charlie - haven't ya finished yet?'

Cold flesh the colour of potatoes
In an instamatic living room of sin
All the required apparatus
Too bad they couldn't fit her head in

In latex pyjamas with bananas going ape
Their identities are cunningly disguised
By a six-inch strip of insulation tape
Strategically stuck across their eyes

Wives from inverness to inner london
Prettiness and pimples co-exist
Pictorially wife-swapping with someone
Who's happily married to his wrist