Magpie by Mark Totterdell

borrow a fagpie
sneak a quick dragpie
off down the pub so there’s no need to nagpie

just an old lagpie
grabbing a bagpie
black and white stripy-topped off with the swagpie

not one to bragpie
second-hand jagpie
see what a beauty he’s managed to blagpie

don’t lose your ragpie
he’s such a wagpie
waving a black and white piraty flagpie

fancy a shagpie
any old slagpie
all on his own with a well dodgy magpie

Mark Totterdell‘s poems have appeared widely in magazines. His collection ‘This Patter of Traces’ was published by Oversteps Books in 2014.

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Cuckoo by Mark Totterdell

That thing that we
stuck to
your body to
track you
wherever flight
took you
was not meant to
mock you,
confuse you or
muck you
about. It’s a
trick to
plot, map you and
clock you
way south past Mo-
rocco
and in the spring
back too,
so we can say
‘look who
it is, look who,
look who
it is, cuckoo,
cuckoo!’

Mark Totterdell‘s poems have appeared widely in magazines. His collection ‘This Patter of Traces’ was published by Oversteps Books in 2014.

website