I Heard You Chatting

I heard you chatting to Mercy and Goodness,
saw you courting Favour too.
I was told you were playing with Success,
just after you’d kissed Breakthrough.
It  seemed you were running with Blessings,
Elegance, Bravado, Romance,
The world at your feet, not regretting,
it was you taught St. Vitus to dance.

Things have changed since your age as an ingenue
you’ve made friends with Snigger and Taunt.
You knelt with Insult and Misconstrue
then prayed to Desire and Want.
I saw you bow to Arrogance and Degradation,
heard you whisper to Meanness and Spite.
Watched you get debased with Negation
in a threesome with Triumph last night.

You’ve been seen taking cocktails with Shambles,
playing dice with Revulsion and Lies.
With Doom and Damnation you gambled
whilst Holiness waited outside.
You pretend you don’t know Pretension,
yet you conspired with Hypocrisy today
on your knees before Foulness and Derision,
sucking the toes of Decay.

It’s what happens when you’re friends with Instrumental.
When Torment says, “meet my friend, – Blame.”
You tweet to the honourable Judge-Mental
and put your Facebook Friends in the frame.
So, while you dance with Deceit and Venality,
consort with Perversion and Greed,
take care to watch over your shoulder,
one day it’s A. Cwtch that you’ll need.

* ‘Cwtch’ – A Welsh colloquialism used to describe a hug, the word also implies safety and security and can therefore, also represent a safe place, often somewhere tucked away, hence, for example ‘the cwtch under the stairs,’ Thus “cwtch” is very much more than a hug, a cuddle or even a cugglihuddle – it’s an embrace  offering not just caring and love but also sanctuary.