Dirty Linen

This is my rather cynical response to the media's insatiable appetite for gossip surrounding a 'fall from grace' by a [choose one] celebrity/sports star/business leader/politician ... but also how there is always money to be made when these things happen (on both sides of the white picket fence) BM

Dirty Linen

She stays away on business
but who is it that she meets?
None of us have secrets
from those who strip the sheets.

The baby wails welcome:
it’s not her papa that she greets.
Can secrets last a lifetime
when blood drips on the sheets?

Shareholders are our lifeblood
their fiscal terms we meet.
So we bury nasty secrets
to balance up the sheets.

‘Suck my toes, slave, suck!’
‘Yes, Mistress B,’ he bleats.
Secrets are so tiresome
to those who whip the sheets.

‘No comment. Give us peace!’
a full answer-phone entreats.
‘Your secrets are our duty,’
claim those who print the sheets.

‘Mea culpa. Mea culpa!’
the fallen one repeats.
More secrets in my tell-all book
—about to hit the streets.

© Beverly Martens
(various drafts)