They bought the horse
in Portobello
brought it home
could hardly wait
installed it in the living room
next to knitted dinner plate
Next to ashtray
(formerly bedpan)
euphonium
no one can play
camel-saddle dollypeg
wooden gollywog with tray
Near a neo
deco lampshade
(a snip at
thirty-seven quid)
castanets and hula-hoop
trunk with psychedelic lid
Under front end
of a caribou
next to foam-
filled rollerskate
(made by a girl in Camden Lock
– she of knitted dinner plate)
Uprooted from
its carousel
the painted horse
now laid to waste
amidst expensive bric-à-brac
and sterile secondhand bad taste
***
And each night as Mr and Ms Trend
in brassbed they lie dreaming
the horse in downstairs darkness
mouths a silent screaming.