One of Those Days by Jeremy Page

I am eating the newspaper for breakfast

and sipping the colour supplements, thoughtfully;

it is one of those days.

The postman has delivered a litter of puppies,

the milkman forgotten human kindness.

The radio waves are crashing ashore

with news of bitter conflict in Switzerland.

The toast has buttered itself and slipped off

to seduce the marmalade, leaving only

crumbs of comfort on my plate;

it is one of those days.

Soon the telephone will be dead

and the Salvation Army will have come

to take me away. For ever.