[Chris O'Carroll]

Unhappy al fresco dining memories, anyone?

No 4242
Set by Leonora Casement
We would like you to send in verses all about the horrors of picnics. An entry many years ago to a similar competition read as follows:

Here I am an old man with
a dry mouth,
Bitten by flies among the cowpats
Eating dead winkles with
a crooked pin.
And the end is the beginning,
and tomorrow
It will be wasps at Runnymede . . .

Max 20 lines by 6 September comp@newstatesman.co.uk