Make them watch what you like

May I recommend to you

I move in Playgroup circles.
They are small circles.
I have suffered the indignity
of a lecture from a four-year old
on the perils, yes the perils, of smoking.

And I had to mumble
adults. sometimes. silly.
response because her mother
measures my tangents
and often finds them wanton.

Thank God, I have boys.
Thank God, I have Thunderbirds.
So may I recommend to you
Thunderbirds, episode thirty-two
The Perils of Penelope

in which she sits at a pavement café
in night-time, dangerous, gay Paree
having her cigarette, holder held
ignited for her whilst exhaling
that immortal, impossible, line.

When asked what she would like to drink
by the silver-haired and voiced distinguished
puppet by her side, she says
that immortal, impossible, line:
“In Paris, Colonel, I always drink Pernod”.

Capital cities, alcohol and cigarettes,
the circumference of my dreams
when I am drowning, I am drowning
I am drowning in Duplo.
“In Paris, Colonel, I always drink Pernod”.