Lord Alfred Douglas’s Lips

If you should take a heavy club hammer

and drive a metal wedge or crowbar

into the riveted seams

of this fin de siècle

square-cornered

thief-resistant

safe

patented in 1898

once the rivets are popped

you should be

at liberty

to peel back a corner of the steel plate.

 

This was a weakness early recognised by the

determined peterman

so the body can be quickly ripped open

to reach the heart:

 

Look

a sealed glass jar.

 

Round the base of the jar is a paper label

with these words beautifully printed on it in large letters:

 

My Own Boy

Rose leaves kept in closed jars

will retain their scent

for one hundred years

although so dried up

as to crumble

into dust

in the hand.