Poem
Adrian Mitchell
A PUPPY CALLED PUBERTY
A PUPPY CALLED PUBERTY
A PUPPY CALLED PUBERTY
It was like keeping a puppy in your underpantsA secret puppy you weren’t allowed to show to anyone
Not even your best friend or your worst enemy
You wanted to pat him stroke him cuddle him
All the time but you weren’t supposed to touch him
He only slept for five minutes at a time
Then he’d suddenly perk up his head
In the middle of school medical inspection
And always on bus rides
So you had to climb down from the upper deck
All bent double to smuggle the puppy off the bus
Without the buxom conductress spotting
Your wicked and ticketless stowaway.
Jumping up, wet-nosed, eagerly wagging –
He only stopped being a nuisance
When you were alone together
Pretending to be doing your homework
But really gazing at each other
Through hot and hazy daydreams
Of those beautiful schoolgirls on the bus
With kittens bouncing in their sweaters.
© 1996, the estate of Adrian Mitchell
From: Blue Coffee
Publisher: Bloodaxe Books, Tarset
From: Blue Coffee
Publisher: Bloodaxe Books, Tarset
Adrian Mitchell
(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1932 - 2008)
“Joyous, acrid and demotic tumbling lyricist Pied Piper determinedly singing us away from catastrophe.” (Angela Carter)
Dubbed the Shadow Poet Laureate in 2003 by Red Pepper magazine, Adrian Mitchell has been one of the most exciting popular voices in British poetry for almost half a century. He passed away just days before Christmas 2008, marking the end of an incredibly prolific, and political...
Dubbed the Shadow Poet Laureate in 2003 by Red Pepper magazine, Adrian Mitchell has been one of the most exciting popular voices in British poetry for almost half a century. He passed away just days before Christmas 2008, marking the end of an incredibly prolific, and political...
Poems
Poems of Adrian Mitchell
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A PUPPY CALLED PUBERTY
It was like keeping a puppy in your underpantsA secret puppy you weren’t allowed to show to anyone
Not even your best friend or your worst enemy
You wanted to pat him stroke him cuddle him
All the time but you weren’t supposed to touch him
He only slept for five minutes at a time
Then he’d suddenly perk up his head
In the middle of school medical inspection
And always on bus rides
So you had to climb down from the upper deck
All bent double to smuggle the puppy off the bus
Without the buxom conductress spotting
Your wicked and ticketless stowaway.
Jumping up, wet-nosed, eagerly wagging –
He only stopped being a nuisance
When you were alone together
Pretending to be doing your homework
But really gazing at each other
Through hot and hazy daydreams
Of those beautiful schoolgirls on the bus
With kittens bouncing in their sweaters.
From: Blue Coffee
A PUPPY CALLED PUBERTY
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