DRESS CODE > POETRY

Fine Sweat on Fine Cotton

By Nathan Lucaussy

This morning must assuredly 

            be akin to every other: 

            the armpits are off to work

                                                                      with fine sweat, on fine cotton. 

            (Oil and sweat on canvas) 

                                                                      does not smell, 

            they say. 

                                                                      It has not 

            bathed in the 

                                                                      venal flow of the 

            Thames. Fine sweat is dignified

                                                                      a man’s white collar hard at work 

            produces fine sweat 

                                                                      when it sits (in fear)

            at the back of the commuters’ bus. 

                                                                      Commute, you say? 

            On a fine morning not more than

                                                                      Fifty-six

            minutes long. 

 

Or the fine, morning-starched cotton is crinkled

worn and its white has turned to blue

(the blue of Metro and

 

                                                                                        Royals’ Cigarettes).

Nathan Lucaussy writes poems from London – some light, some not, and some we’d rather all forget. He wrangles products by day and champions food waste by night (because really, who’s pro-wasted food these days?). If not musing or managing products, he’s probably spilling tea. Literally. Poetry in Shot Glass and Argo.

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