THE CITY

Businessmen with awkward hips
And dirty jokes upon their lips,
And large behinds and jingling chains,
And riddled teeth and riddling brains,
And plump white fingers made to curl
Round some anaemic city girl,
And so lend colour to heir lives
And old suspicions of their wives.

Young men who wear on office stools
The ties of minor public schools,
Each learning how to be a sinner
And tell a "good one" after dinner,
And so discover it is rather
Fun to go one more than father.
But father, son and and clerk join up
To talk about the Football Cup.

John Betjeman

Edition of 20. £50