[Jayne Osborn]

Very nice one, Frank.

The surprise when you reach and that is just the crowd is priceless.

Just one small thing - annoying noise? Maybe you prefer the repeat sound, though as it's the people who smell I'd have thought something much stronger like 'It smells disgusting' (which it often does, believe me, especially in warm weather!) would be closer to the real sensation.

I think the term 'non-discretionary fragrance' came from the States; it's so much more imaginative than the UK's 'B.O.' (body odour)

[FOsen]

Thanks, Jayne, though now it yis what it yis, as Popeye might say. Some may recognize it as (I prefer homage to rip-of, but will settle for) a tinny echo of Bill Coyle's "The Flautist at North Station."

Editing in to say I take your point - I guess it's not possible to 'smell annoying,' is it? Don't think I've helped the repeat sound, though - sometimes they bug me, but I thought a train poem might be appropriate.

[Maryann Corbett]

Frank, I have no nits; I just want to say I like it tremendously. The nods to Pound and Milton gave me big, big smiles. Lovely vignette. And I've been in those stations.

[Ann Drysdale]

Earth has not anything to show more fine
Than that which underpins that mighty heart.
The same arrangement graces yours and mine
But London’s bowels are a world apart.
Embark not on another aimless wander
Go, operate thine Oyster and invest in
An hour or two to ride the rails and ponder
The intricacies of its great intestine.
Scraps of humanity are sucked inside,
Whirling with strangers in unwitting waltzes,
All thrown together in a breathless ride
And squeezed along by merry peristalsis.
Through any of its many mouths man passes
To issue from its omnipresent arses.

[Roger Slater]

waltzes/peristalsis is quite a rhyme!

This one goes nowhere, but what the hey:

Tubing

The day I went schlepping
from Heathrow to Epping
I learned that the Underground's huge.

Crammed in and boxed in
the train I saw Hoxton
and Tottenham Court Road and Goodge,

and Croxley and Gloucester.
I must have been lost or
how else did I see Parson's Green?

I purchased no fare
to ride by Leicester Square.
My goal was to visit the Queen.

[basil ransome-davies]

[quote=FOsen;207962]

Across from me, a glum, old gent, alone,
Ignores our black bough’s freshest, wettest petal,


I wondered who would be first with a Pound allusion. You need more than one pound for a Tube journey these days.

[FOsen]

Haha - wrong contest, Bazza.

[basil ransome-davies]

Ooh you are awful.

[FOsen]

Actually, that might not make a bad suggestion for a future Speccie:

METAPHYSICAL POET: Why did you take away my drink?
BARTENDER: I’m sorry, sir, I thought you were Donne.

[basil ransome-davies]

I can't send a Chris O'Carroll a personal message of congratulation till he empties his message box. So well done for the double hit, Speccie & Staggers, Chris.

bazza

PS: Empty your message box, Chris, or weed it at least.