Out spot

Out spot

Out

Damn spot

An accident waiting

For permission

To be called a black spot

A polka dot

A black spot on the skin

A cosmetic anomaly

An old-fashioned beauty

When times were different.

Add a black spot here

Another one there

Where is the Pimpernel

I knew him well

Before he discovered scarlet.

An old hag's head

Hovers in the window

Gazing out at next door’s

Fat black cat

Who vibrates,

As he purrs, watching

The guy from number five

Stealing underwear from

The clothes line.

He has taken to

Decorate the walls

Of his bedroom

With lingerie.

As a distraction

From boredom

He became a snowdropper

And uses an array

Of stolen panties to cover

The black spots

On his walls.

Black mould

Black mood

The old black soot

Filled chimneys

Black shadows

Leaning crazily

The reek of poverty

And disease

Lining the walls

Of old damp houses

With their storied history

And poor ventilation

Black spots

Confined to the margins

Of polite society

Reduced to a dash

Of local colour

In an otherwise

Grey area.