don't hide from gleams of wings

or shudder at the vision of veils,

fitful as glances days leak away

against woe a churchyard pales

 

there's a woman lives next door

Sadie claims she's from Berlin

in her dustbin I found a badge

a Nazi emblem with a gold pin

 

she seems to live at a low ebb

one not noted for her candour

says her daughter got adopted

I listen, though I never pander

 

at night wailing assails the walls

her clients grovel amid the dark

imagination merely offers signs

stern jaw-bone, calves so stark

 

some of them love it, the power

bondage mags in the bin I read

drapes drawn for they suppress

scented jackboots unholy tread

 

I'd kill to enjoy her full regalia

at the shop demure she looks,

no hallmark of the dominatrix;

why can't I be on her books?