Poetry 2017 / 006

While My Daughter Gently Weeps

Three wise men at the door

(though no-one's about to give birth, thankfully,

and I'm pretty certain about my state of virginity)

identically dressed in black suits,

white shirts, black ties.

Three round and very white faces

if you discount the acne and the shaving cuts

and I'm deathly polite as I open the door.

I spot the name tag of the middle one and smile.

“We're poly, leasbian, trangender and atheist,

so in your eyes we're going to Hell.”

My words stun them to silence

and I follow up with Leviticus 19:27:

“You shall not... harm the edges of your beard.

so you'll go to Hell too. See you there.”

“Okay,” says the left hand of the trinity,

and they troop up the motorcycle ramp.

While I smile and wave goodbye.