Town in Dark Trousers

the town leaps about in dark trousers 

a childhood 
traipses through / many shops

liqour stores  
green grocers / the condom people / making love 
                                    in The Square

The Lipstick Lady

                     i take notice
                     pay the lipstick lady
                     
                     for her war paint 
                     her smudged face

i feel     the tug

of being pulled up     new sap in the veins

a menu highly recommended						

i feel the hungry gathering 

                  licking faces

                  jaws working

                  on flavours

         the lipstick lady does her sums
         she polishes her books

          already her afterlife 
          is coated in marmalade & melting butter
          already she is caught     wiping 
          saliva from her yellow lips    

Iain Britton has authored several poetry collections. His work has been nominated for a Forward Prize for best single poem and best first collection. His pamphlets and small collections have been published by Kilmog Press, Like This Press, Oystercatcher Press, Interactive Press, and Lapwing Publications; his poetry by Harvard Review, POETRY, The New York Times, Poet Lore, Abridged, Stand, Wild Court, Long Poem Magazine, New Humanist, The Scores Journal, Agenda, New Statesman, Prototype, Poetry Wales, Poetry Birmingham, and many others. Hesterglock Press published The Intaglio Poems in 2017. Sampson Low published his chapbook Project Constellation in 2022. His latest collection Uncertain Densities was published by Rufus Books Publishing last year.