It will give you cancer

It will give you cancer

So they say

Smiling

White rictus grins

Toothpaste teeth

An orthodontic delight

An insurers dream

Here

Take some cream

Slap it on

Then sit for a while

Braize in the sun

Gently burn

Turn a healthy shade

Just not too much

Enough is enough

Even on a cool day

When it is tempting

To sit on the grass

Watching the sky

As it changes

The passage of the sun

From East to West

The sea looks like glass

The sand is so white

Everything is backlit

The senses heightened

The twist of a screwtop

The zest of an orange

Vitamin C meets Vitamin D

For a health check

There is an App for it

Nobody can prevent

Ageing

Or the march of the ants.

Remembering the old ways

Of olive oil

Calamine Lotion

Vinegar and brown paper

Skin peeling off

A shedding snake.

Glowing like a Belisha beacon

When cancer was what happened

To other people

With a different skin tone.

When everyone loved freckles

But a redhead.

Even when they looked wonderful

Sitting beneath an umbrella

In suitable shade

Wearing sensible shoes.

There is a kind of sophistication

In caution

Ask a skin specialist

Consultancies

Are the new day surgery

And have appeared

Everywhere

Like a rash.