Scarlet Geraniums

A beach towel I bought in Barcelona

had a crest of scarlet geraniums.

Who would I give that to besides the one

I didn’t give the Kim Kardashian towel to?

Scarlet geraniums are not natural

to Ville D’Anjou, Quebec. ‘You’re amazing,

but you will always hurt those who fall

for your charm. You won’t mean to, but you will.’

The cover of Ted Hughes’s Birthday Letters

has a similar strew of geraniums,

but he wasted no time singing his anthem,

‘This One Goes out to the One I Fucked Up.’

I bought duty-free Iberian ham

rather than beach gear, which only affirmed

the Spanish maxim: You always end up

eating the Iberian ham you love.