"Oldest Profession"

My 2024 National Poetry Competition entry...

Unsuccessful - but then the competition was stiff: over 21.5k entries.

oldest profession

1

words are predictably unoriginal
lying on their backs and turning tricks
for a few sou (or some other redundant currency)
dropped into a chipped saucer
on a sideboard that has been better days

perhaps they are saving up for something
liberation perhaps
the opportunity to jack it all in
head off to where they can be fulfilled
and sunsets are real

2

the punters
having got their breath back
pulled their kecks up
pause at the end of the non-marital bed
avoid the mirror on the dresser

released into an unoriginal landscape
collar up they shuffle away
hoping to remain inconspicuous
hoping no-one will cotton-on
put two and two together

they only meant to try it once
just an experiment
the idea foist on them by an ex-friend
who told them the experience
would be liberating

it’s the opposite of course
an addiction of the first order
compulsion emptying their wallet
what’s left of their heart
the ink in their biros

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“Oldest Profession” is published in my new collection, Less, on 1st April.

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