BAD GIRLS

• 152 pages
• Troubadour Publishing, 2008
• £10.99 RRP
• Available for purchase from Troubadour as well as directly from Dee Gordon

♦ “Difficult to choose a favourite… excellent collection … not treated too seriously … one of my favourite poetry books of the year – highly recommended“
(The Supplement)

 CHRISTINE KEELER &
MANDY RICE-DAVIES

Christine and Mandy.
What a double act.
Mere prostitutes or so much more?

Christine and Mandy –
Did they make a pact
To bring down politicians by the score?

Christine and Mandy.
It’s a well known fact:
They didn’t care about the law.

Christine and Mandy
Didn’t have much tact.
Cornered, they fought with boob and claw.

Christine and Mandy.
They couldn’t be sacked.
But MPs, Ruskies, during the cold war …

Christine and Mandy.
What they really lacked
Was a spin doctor with a moral flaw.

MOLL FLANDERS

Daniel Defoe wrote the story,
Caused a stir, a fine furore.
His heroine no girl next door.
Twelve years a thief, twelve years a whore.

Born a felon like her mother,
Several husbands – plus her brother.
Conquests included men of law.
Twelve years a thief, twelve years a whore.

ANNE BOLEYN

Anne Boleyn, was she naughty
Or superior and haughty?
Was she chaste?
Was she flirty?
Did she play low-down and dirty?

Anne said ‘No’ to the King
Until he promised everything:
A divorce, a split with Rome,
Then marriage and the throne.

Anne Boleyn, was she a schemer
Or an innocent, a dreamer?
Was she shrewd?
Was she flirty?
Did she play low-down and dirty?

Sister Mary, Henry’s mistress,
Had his baby, branded temptress.
Not for Anne the same result.
She made conquest difficult.

Anne Boleyn thought she had won
But no, there was no heir, no son.
Was she devious?
Was she flirty?
Did she play low-down and dirty?

If you found Anne’s death distressing
And the cause unprepossessing…
If only she’d said ‘Yes’
She would have lost much less.

BOUDICCA c.AD30-AD60

Essex Warrior Queen Boadicea*
didn’t need tanking up with sangria.
She screamed and she shouted,
the battle rules flouted,
dead Romans her pet panacea.

* You try rhyming Boudicca…