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Ceramic Japanese calling cat with wreth of Christmas decoations in blue dish

Will Ingrams: Festive Advice

Christmas bumps off the year,
Always comes round too fast,
But wring out some Good Cheer,
Or you’ll just look tight-arsed!

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Alexander Pepple: The Submitter

Who made these dolts editors for this rag?
My stuff so trumps the dross they print, I gag.

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Damian Balassone: On Meeting A Quiet Author

When you stop to think it through,
it’s really quite ironic
that a man who’s known for words
is so goddam laconic.

Hand with cuff pointing righ  See News

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Jerome Betts: Body Language

(On noticing someone on a train with
 a collection by an old acquaintance.)

Hand up to mouth you sat and read
Like one whose salad hides a weevil.
Or was it just a sign that said
“Of this book I can speak no evil’?.

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Max Gutmann: In An Airport Waiting Area:

Stuck waiting with these strangers, I’m discouraged by the way
The folks who talk the loudest always have the least to say.

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Peggy Verrall: Takeover Bid.

She likes a pillow, does my cat,
And there is nothing wrong in that
Except that where she lays her head
Is on MY pillow, on MY bed!

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James Penha: The Portrait of Durian Gay

My
husband loves
durian more than
me—I mean . . . than I do. He
wants the fruit to fall in his arms. Not me.

Two duria ruits, one sliced in half to show orange pulp

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Eileen Ivey Sirota: Love Among The Superannuated

The highs and lows of teenage love woes
don’t speak to the couple who can’t touch their toes.

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Michael Swan: Not Ready To Leave

Too bad for heaven.
Too good for hell.
I think I'll stay, then,
might as well.

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Tony Peyser: Low Self Esteem In A
Hollywood Dive Bar For Failed Actors.

This snockered regular
Said to me after a pause,
“Do you have any idea
Who I never was?”

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Alexander Pepple: The Mogul

The chairman, although one God-awful cook,
had done the firm’s books like a seasoned crook.

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Chris Bullard: From Killer Bees To Murder Hornets

Every day,
some former curse
gets replaced
with something worse

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David Galef: Cephalopod Love

Male blue-ringed octopuses were found to
recognize females they’d already mated
with by their sense of touch, a sign of how
sensitive their limbs are.
- From NY Times photo caption 30. 08 22

My dear, it’s been an ocean’s age
Since we last bonked, and my mouth puckers.
My tentacles are truly touched.
It’s how I recognized your suckers.

Small blue-ringed octopus swimming