The New Honesty

We brought back sincerity
in the light of a joke
about giant inflatable minorities
having televised battles:
repressed zeppelins placing
their slow hands on one another
in glorious weather. The sort
of day the whole family can enjoy,
paddle ball beneath the trees
as The Gay’s back-hand chop
connects with The Afro-Caribbean’s
corn rows. Fathers making jokes
they would never normally make.
Someone has brought a wireless
and the commentators, freed
from the labyrinth of alien
sensitivities, take new risks
– Pow! That’s for slavery,
and why not, Dan – everyone’s
jaws feel unhinged – today’s
about being who we are, isn’t it
Dan and slam! That one’s
for Beenie Man – along the river
exotic trinkets are selling well.
Fathers are smiling broadly
and saying words they
would never normally say:
riddim, dutty, manscaping.

There’s the sound of air escaping;
a puncture, it’s enough to remind
people why they really came out
so they step from under the trees
and watch the final contractions.