Second Prize
Mick Wood, Strasbourg, France

Dog Mess

Too many dog-botherers
on the beach today, bullying
their lewd and leery angels,

making them beg for hubbie's
severed penis, plunge
for the boss's eyeballs

tossed in to the surf, urging
them on as they drag the head
of that ungrateful buoy

from under the beach huts
by his oily hair. License
at last to fuck-up a childhood,

punishing and pampering
as the fancy takes them, gimping
and whipping with muzzle and leash

then loving to bits, to bits
as they massage priapic tongues
from peluche heads, stare

in to glassy eyes, pleading
please oh please don't eat me up
like the other kids did.

A good skim from shore
the seal who was considering
retraining as a Labrador

decides to stick with spy, sinks
in to an enchanted forest
of kelp, and scubas away.