by Wendy Cope
Can someone make my simple wish come true?
Male biker seeks female for touring fun.
Do you live in North London? Is it you?
Gay vegetarian whose friends are few,
I'm into music, Shakespeare and the sun.
Can someone make my simple wish come true?
Executive in search of something new—
Perhaps bisexual woman, arty, young.
Do you live in North London? Is it you?
Successful, straight and solvent? I am too—
Attractive Jewish lady with a son.
Can someone make my simple wish come true?
I'm Libran, inexperienced and blue—
Need slim, non-smoker, under twenty-one.
Do you live in North London? Is it you?
Please write (with photo) to Box 152.
Who knows where it may lead once we've begun?
Can someone make my simple wish come true?
Do you live in North London? Is it you?
1 comment:
Ally--where did you find this poem? It's priceless!! It's also a perfect example of one of my favorite poetic forms, the villanelle. It's a form in which the poem is always 19 lines long, with only two different rhymes throughout the poem, and in which the lines used in lines 1 & 3 are repeated, alternating, in lines 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, & 19. An old French form, not easy to write, but wonderful when a writer finds a way to make it work. Check out, in our anthology, Dylan Thomas' poem to his dying father, "Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night."
Thanks for finding this. I'm putting it in my poetry folder.
Post a Comment