Yuyu Poem for the Anthology, Eternal Snow

'All the way from Kathmandu'

By John Clarke

Yuyutsu ,my good poet friend, from Nepal

Tells me he has brought me a present

All the way from Kathmandu

If it's a yak-a hirsute goat-like creature-

I will use it to keep down the grass

Choking my back garden in Lewisham

Where the grass has lain unmown all year

I'll have to ensure that the beast

doesn't become bloated

I may of course experience some minor difficulty

In getting my yak back from Shoreditch

On a number 47 bus

I can see the headline in the 'Sun'

"Yak in a sack of smack found in the back

of a bus at Catford Garage"

I know I can despatch a swift email

To that phlegmatic poet AF Harrold

Who wrote:"113 ways of looking at a Yak"

Or somesuch witty ditty

Surely he'll have the solution

To my dilemma

And can arrive at an admirably sedate

Decision-he's so so English-

Altho'I do appreciate that Reading

In Berkshire

Is not Sarth East Landan

Maybe I'm getting all of a lather

Over nothing

And the present will be p'raps

A bamboo flute or a mohair suit-

Think I could go with that

After Yuyu reading at Nehru Center, London