1) For Peta Tucker, my Mum

Spider wanted
a traditional Christmas.
However, his sausages
made Hippopotamus bashful.

Hippo was embarrassed
when spider performed
a spontaneous salsa,
especially as they were in the butchers.

Words from Peta: spider, hippopotamus, bashful, spontaneous, butch, sausages.

A few many syllable words – tricky to fit in and make scan.

Poem 2) for Mary Norton Gilonne

I knew about the affair
before she told me.
It was in the way
she chewed around plum-stones.

In the way she drained oranges,
knees clasped with one arm,
childlike,
as the flesh slithered down her sleeve
and peel was sucked clean.

It was in the way
she sang Prince loudly
as she prepared
my cyanide risotto.

Words from Mary: Affair, stones, oranges, slither, loud, risotto.

Poem 3) For Reuben Woolley

It created a silent frontier,
the snow, plain and deep,
meant no travel was possible.

The river looked…